Saving naptha when using marsofold

[JBB]

Reading marsofold's tips for better yields he says that using 500mls of naptha and then evaporating down to 50mls before freeze-precipitation is the most efficient method when you don't know what yield to expect.

Unfortunately in the UK naptha costs a fortune so is there any other method than evaporating off 450mls of naptha every time?

[marsofold]

You don't have to evaporate it down if you have a reasonably accurate idea of what the yield is likely to be. If you don't know, then concentrating the naptha down before freezing it is the best way to max out yield.

EDIT: The Behlen company in the UK sells naptha (item# B650-0056) in hardware stores in the wood finishing department. 7-1/2 British Pounds for 0.88Kgs. Since heptane's specific gravity is approximately 0.7, that equates to 1.25Liters. $43/gallon. Four times the average in the USA.

I can't believe there is no product available that can't be distilled to yield naptha. Naptha after all is just a mixture of hydrocarbons, mostly heptane/hexane. Heptane is used for camping fuel and hexane is used for contact cleaner and artist solvent. Something common and cheap must exist in the UK that has one of these as the main ingredient that can be distilled out.

[JBB]

Thanks.

The naptha works out a little more expensive than that. It's £7.50 for 983ml. Plus £4.50 postage for one bottle. So it's about £12 a litre. If you're evaporating 450ml for each crystallisation and you do 3 extractions you're looking at £25 just in naptha alone.

[marsofold]

What's really needed is an ultra-simple SAFE outdoor still design to distill heptane/hexane from some low priced commercial product. I used to make a solar still in summer from a sheet of plastic to distill Ozark Trail Camp Fuel purchased at Walmart for $5.00 a gallon. It was slow, only 50% efficient (I only got 1.7-Liters/gallon/day), but it worked. And I got pure heptane/hexane for $3/gallon. The best stuff there is for extractions.

I was thinking that maybe if a small electric potporri pot was filled with fuel, placed in a round tub near the side , and the top of the tub covered with a single wide sheet of aluminum foil lightly weighted at the outside center of the foil with a catch pot inside below, you'd have a simple still that could do it. A bungee cord would seal the foil by circling the tub. That would be a non-solar copy of my solar still. All outside of course. And would allow solvent recovery for recycling naptha/heptane/hexane/toluene/xylene...

[papalion]

Remember you can use any nonpolar solvent. Toluene, Naptha, Xylene, Heptane, Hexane.... VM&P Naptha is unbeatable... but if you're a brit you'll have a hard time getting it AFAIK.

You can always vacuum evap/distill and condense it.... That should help quite a bit.

Freeze precip has a cleaner.. but lesser.. yield... and nothing beats heptane/bestine for a recrystallization solvent

[lost_onabbey_rd]

what is the holding capacity of room temp napatha?
like how many ml of napatha holds how much spice?
knowing that would make it much easier to calculate
lost

[marsofold]

90ml/gram at room temperature.