Extraction distillation epuipment, reuse of solvent.

I've been looking at a good distillation setup, to reuse my solvent. I figured It would save alot of money and is very eco friendly compared to evaporating of the expensive solvents.

It's fairly easy to get ones hands on one of those copper stills as long you run 98-100% alcohol you should be fine, but for those running a isopropyl extration there might be slight a problem with those copper stills, I read on Wiki P that isopropyl alcohol heated with a copper catalyst would convert isopropyl alocohol into acetone, which is a solvent too but not the one I would pick, but I'm no chemist, my question is would it be a problem using a copper still for a isopropyl extraction, because of this acetone conversion ?

If not usable, is any other metals that would work, I guess stainless steel would work ?

happy extraction folks.

Contact Graywolf for any extraction equipment or questions. Here is one of his posts here on cannabis.com

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Originally Posted by mcpuff

I've been looking at a good distillation setup, to reuse my solvent. I figured It would save alot of money and is very eco friendly compared to evaporating of the expensive solvents.

It's fairly easy to get ones hands on one of those copper stills as long you run 98-100% alcohol you should be fine, but for those running a isopropyl extration there might be slight a problem with those copper stills, I read on Wiki P that isopropyl alcohol heated with a copper catalyst would convert isopropyl alocohol into acetone, which is a solvent too but not the one I would pick, but I'm no chemist, my question is would it be a problem using a copper still for a isopropyl extraction, because of this acetone conversion ?

If not usable, is any other metals that would work, I guess stainless steel would work ?

happy extraction folks.

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Good question.
Let's ponder.

To address the acetone conversion, let me say that I have used pure acetone as a solvent when I was evaporating to the air.
The keyword here, is pure.

I found that it evaporated completely leaving no residue when simply boiled off in a clean vessel.
So, I don't see that conversion is a problem.

The problems with acetone are about the same as the problems with iso.
They are bipolar and aggressive solvents.
Unless they are chilled to freezing temperature they pick up too many water soluble compounds.
And they are somewhat toxic and must be fully purged.
The difficulty of complete purging was a worry, especially with Naphtha.

I did not use copper at the time.
Had a stainless steel still.
Then went to a glass boiler and a Liebig condenser.

Then, I switched to Ethanol as a solvent.
The original Everclear was quite expensive, but now it's a one-time cost with occasional top-offs.

When I looked up Copper stills for Ethanol I learned that copper is used exactly because of it's role as a catalyst.

Long explanation goes here.

But, I'd probably mangle it in my present condition.
Much mo' betta if you look it up among the horse teeth.
Google n Wiki are eager to share. :)

Long story, short.
Got a friend building a copper still for me.
Now all I need is raw materials, yah? :)
When it arrives, I'll have to go beggin' for trim to make my next batch of oil.

Aloha y'all

Weezard

thank you :)