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Dewaxing... Is H2O the answer?
- Thread starter HashoftheTitans
- Start date
Chonkski
Member
That is also a good question considering your variables. As SoySoz was wondering, what about using chilled glass?
Essentially this. If anything water should repel the non-polar waxes, not stick to them, which is why I'd love to see more testing as you guys would.
HashoftheTitans
Member
I'm pretty sure that chilled stainless will pick up some wax, but not sure how much. My first step is to see if there is any validity to my ice idea. I definitely think that surface area is key in giving the waxes a place to stick. I will also do a soak with some chilled stainless steel wool and see what that picks up as well.
soo i'm trying something out, a super simple test just to see how paraffin wax, butane and ice interact with each other.
i have paraffin candles which i took several shavings from and loaded a few of them into the fuel tank of an old butane soldering iron i have. i closed up the fuel tank and filled it with butane. it took about 30 minutes for all of the shavings to dissolve but it's in my freezer now. i also poured about 10mL of distilled water into a measuring shot glass and placed that in the freezer next to the soldering iron.
when the butane gets cold enough and the water freezes i'll empty it into the shot glass and see what happens. i hypothesize the polarity of the water would pull the non-polar wax molecules out of solution and the added surface area of the ice would give them a place to condense.
thanks Hash for posting your findings, i really hope this is a dewaxing shortcut!
i have paraffin candles which i took several shavings from and loaded a few of them into the fuel tank of an old butane soldering iron i have. i closed up the fuel tank and filled it with butane. it took about 30 minutes for all of the shavings to dissolve but it's in my freezer now. i also poured about 10mL of distilled water into a measuring shot glass and placed that in the freezer next to the soldering iron.
when the butane gets cold enough and the water freezes i'll empty it into the shot glass and see what happens. i hypothesize the polarity of the water would pull the non-polar wax molecules out of solution and the added surface area of the ice would give them a place to condense.
thanks Hash for posting your findings, i really hope this is a dewaxing shortcut!
HashoftheTitans
Member
Great idea! Looking forward to hearing the results. I'll be doing by experiment tomorrow. The one thing that mainly concerns me is whether or not some terps would also be pulled out with the ice. I will melt my ice off and evaporate it slowly and inspect what is left behind to see if it pulls out anything that we don't want it to. Thanks for showing interest and doing some leg-work. I really hope we get some positive results.
Pure777Extracts
Member
I'm very interested to see what happens
r00st3rsauc3
New member
Any update on this experiment?
I would say that ice cubes, glass shards and metal rods are not analagous in this case. The glass and metal are both crystalline structures like frozen water. But the ice will still have a polar interface with the solution whereas glass and metal do not.
It's probably something with this interface layer 'grabbing' the fats because of temperature and the awesome properties of water.
do you cold filter? (like coors??)
after winterizing, I do the final filter in the freezer. Residue on the paper when the filter comes out. After it comes up to room temperature, it's like it melted into the filter paper.
I would say that ice cubes, glass shards and metal rods are not analagous in this case. The glass and metal are both crystalline structures like frozen water. But the ice will still have a polar interface with the solution whereas glass and metal do not.
It's probably something with this interface layer 'grabbing' the fats because of temperature and the awesome properties of water.
do you cold filter? (like coors??)
after winterizing, I do the final filter in the freezer. Residue on the paper when the filter comes out. After it comes up to room temperature, it's like it melted into the filter paper.
a little update.
my half-assed "experiment" didn't work very well. the ice didn't seem to have much affect on condensing the waxes, mostly because the wax got everywhere. i think i may have dissolved too much wax for the volume of butane i used. i used some pretty crude methods/materials for this, but i'm pretty sure the ice didn't have an affect on the wax.
my half-assed "experiment" didn't work very well. the ice didn't seem to have much affect on condensing the waxes, mostly because the wax got everywhere. i think i may have dissolved too much wax for the volume of butane i used. i used some pretty crude methods/materials for this, but i'm pretty sure the ice didn't have an affect on the wax.
