Fadedawg
Well-Known Member
10-7-13
The moment some of ya'll have been waiting for has arrived, with the actual ppm residual contaminants in butane, by some of the common brands, as well as a couple not commonly used for butane extraction for comparison.
No hoopla or fanfaronade, just the actual ppm residuals by brand, as measured by a certified third party analytical lab.
Note that the ppm in the Gasone and Iwatani include Thiol mercaptans for leak detection. Thiols are alcohol analogs, where the oxygen atom is replaced by a sulfur atom and adds a garlic odor.
Note that the highest ppm found in any brand was 7% of their certified maximum of 50 ppm.
Also note that except for Lucienne, these were single can grab samples, and Lucienne is only two different lots, so the differences between brands, especially by the same refiner, may even out. IE: Lucienne and Newport.
They may not too, as the same refiner doesn't necessarily mean the same refinery, which could also account for the differences.
So now that we have two bits of empirical scientific data, derived by a certified third party lab, instead of the anecdotal information on Facebook and the web that we started with, lets do the math to put this in perspective.
The previous part per billionth analysis showed 1,4 Dichlorobenzene at a combined total level of 55 parts per billionth, or .000,000,055. We all agree that we want no part of 1,4 Dichlorozenzene, because it has been declared a carcinogen, and given a low TWA CEIL of 110ppm by NIOSH.
http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9923722
55 parts per billionth in the concentrated residual itself, is 2000 times smaller than 110 parts per millionth TWA Ceiling imposed by NIOSH.
It will in addition be further diluted in an extract, considering that at the worse case total residual contaminant found was 3.5 ppm, besides being dilute in the extracted oil itself. Lets look at that math.
.000,000, 055 X .000, 0035 = .000,000,000,000,192 or 200 parts per quadrillion in the butane used for extraction.
Assuming a 40 gram trim extraction, using 300 ml of butane, and yielding only 10%, 300 ml butane would deposit .000,000,000,058 ml of 1,4 Dichlorbenzene in 4 grams of concentrate.
.000, 000, 000, 058 ml X 1.2475 gms per ml = .000,000,000,072 grams of 1,4 Dichlorobenzene in 4 grams of concentrate.
.000,000.000,072 grams divided by 4 grams =.000,000,000,018 or 18 parts per trillion.
110 ppm TWA Ceiling (.000, 110) divided by residual 1,4 Dichlorobenzene level of 18 parts per trillion (.000,000,000,01
= 6,111,111 or about one six millionth (1/6,000,000th) of maximum allowable exposure level.
4 grams of oil will produce about 20 200 mg hits, so each hit would be about 1/20th of 1/6,000, 000, so exposure per hit would be about 1/1,200,000,000 of the 110 ppm maximum.
Soooo, now that we have put things in perspective, where do we go from here?
We are planning some more testing of different brands and sources and further refined testing of all the evil spirits, but we have come far enough to know that while we would prefer to not have the unwanted contaminants in our butane, its presence is thousands, or even billions of times below published levels of concerns by health professionals.
We've also learned that it is easy to remove, using a cold trap and a refrigerant recovery pump, so those of you with the required equipment can take it out, making the point moot.
That is what we now do, because we can, but continue to use the oil we produced before we started fractionally distilling the butane.
The moment some of ya'll have been waiting for has arrived, with the actual ppm residual contaminants in butane, by some of the common brands, as well as a couple not commonly used for butane extraction for comparison.
No hoopla or fanfaronade, just the actual ppm residuals by brand, as measured by a certified third party analytical lab.
Note that the ppm in the Gasone and Iwatani include Thiol mercaptans for leak detection. Thiols are alcohol analogs, where the oxygen atom is replaced by a sulfur atom and adds a garlic odor.
Note that the highest ppm found in any brand was 7% of their certified maximum of 50 ppm.
Also note that except for Lucienne, these were single can grab samples, and Lucienne is only two different lots, so the differences between brands, especially by the same refiner, may even out. IE: Lucienne and Newport.
They may not too, as the same refiner doesn't necessarily mean the same refinery, which could also account for the differences.
So now that we have two bits of empirical scientific data, derived by a certified third party lab, instead of the anecdotal information on Facebook and the web that we started with, lets do the math to put this in perspective.
The previous part per billionth analysis showed 1,4 Dichlorobenzene at a combined total level of 55 parts per billionth, or .000,000,055. We all agree that we want no part of 1,4 Dichlorozenzene, because it has been declared a carcinogen, and given a low TWA CEIL of 110ppm by NIOSH.
http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9923722
55 parts per billionth in the concentrated residual itself, is 2000 times smaller than 110 parts per millionth TWA Ceiling imposed by NIOSH.
It will in addition be further diluted in an extract, considering that at the worse case total residual contaminant found was 3.5 ppm, besides being dilute in the extracted oil itself. Lets look at that math.
.000,000, 055 X .000, 0035 = .000,000,000,000,192 or 200 parts per quadrillion in the butane used for extraction.
Assuming a 40 gram trim extraction, using 300 ml of butane, and yielding only 10%, 300 ml butane would deposit .000,000,000,058 ml of 1,4 Dichlorbenzene in 4 grams of concentrate.
.000, 000, 000, 058 ml X 1.2475 gms per ml = .000,000,000,072 grams of 1,4 Dichlorobenzene in 4 grams of concentrate.
.000,000.000,072 grams divided by 4 grams =.000,000,000,018 or 18 parts per trillion.
110 ppm TWA Ceiling (.000, 110) divided by residual 1,4 Dichlorobenzene level of 18 parts per trillion (.000,000,000,01
= 6,111,111 or about one six millionth (1/6,000,000th) of maximum allowable exposure level.4 grams of oil will produce about 20 200 mg hits, so each hit would be about 1/20th of 1/6,000, 000, so exposure per hit would be about 1/1,200,000,000 of the 110 ppm maximum.
Soooo, now that we have put things in perspective, where do we go from here?
We are planning some more testing of different brands and sources and further refined testing of all the evil spirits, but we have come far enough to know that while we would prefer to not have the unwanted contaminants in our butane, its presence is thousands, or even billions of times below published levels of concerns by health professionals.
We've also learned that it is easy to remove, using a cold trap and a refrigerant recovery pump, so those of you with the required equipment can take it out, making the point moot.
That is what we now do, because we can, but continue to use the oil we produced before we started fractionally distilling the butane.
