[BlaineLawrence760!]

Hello All,

If anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated. The company I am employed at is currently trying to find a method to Recycle the hexane that is used in cleaning of core materials sent in from different companies in the Oil Industry. We are trying to do this so we can reduce the cost we spend on Hexane and reuse more chemicals that have not already been spent in this practice. The method we are thinking of using is distillation to extract the hexane we have used from a mixture of materials that have higher boiling point than hexane. I am sure this will work, but I was wondering if there was any other practices or concerns I should be worried about before proceeding with this method. If anyone has any experience with this it would be greatly appreciate.

Thank you.

[Arkcon]

Distillation is a procedure, known for centuries, that theoretically addresses your problem properly.  The devil, however, is in the details.  You have to consider what scale you'll work at, and how you'll handle the solvent before and after.   How you'll heat it, how practical that heating is, how safe it its, and how cost effective cooling hot vapor is.  And that's really just the beginning.

Many large chemical disposal companies will distill a resell solvents.  Probably for a premium price -- that is, they don't make money selling re-distilled solvent, they make money billing the company that hired them for disposal -- the company is now sure that their spent solvent has no chance of ending up poured down the drain.

[P]

Yea, I would have thought a large still would do it...  electric heating basin probably best  -  make sure you are up to date with the safety procedures for distilling solvents. Make sure no other idiots are free to interfere with the kit or smoke near it.