Safe Plastic Identification

[amaark]

Being new to this I have read and read and read........

I have found the articles relating to the use plastics both informative and interesting. Having used everyone experience on here to get a good idea of the right direction I thought I would try to provide some input that may be of use.

Whilst it is a very safe statement that not all plastics mix well with Ethanol (Ethyl Alcohol) some are highly resistant. As it is well documented the problem is working out which is which.

2 plastics I have found to be resistant are 2 of the most common used in food and drink packaging:

Polypropylene and Low Density Polyethylene. Now thanks to the wonderful world of recycling these are identifiable by the images I have attached.







These marks are normally found as a discreet marking.

It might not suit everyone to use plastic but it might help a few others

[YHB]

Please be very careful.

Two things to consider

1) When you are distilling many compounds come through the still, ethanol is one but there are others, Acetone and Ethyl Acetate to name two. When you check the chemical resistance charts you need to check all.

2) The chemical resistance varies with temperature, make sure that you use a chemical resistance guide at the correct temperature.

An Example - when the heads are being taken off with a LM still (Bokakob) you will be dealing with high concentrations of Ethyl Acetae at 60degC. The chart I have for Chemical resistance rates Polypropylene as NOT SUITABLE for Ethyle Acetate at anything over 20 DegC.

I believe that a sweeping statement that Polypropylene is suitable for use with a still is very misleading.

The subject is wide ranging and complex and if you get it wrong dangerous.

The choice is yours of course, but the more I think about it, the more I stick to Copper, Stainless Steel and Glass, they are cheap, readily available and safe.

Please be careful

YHB

[amaark]

Point taken, forgot to take into account the trace crap that comes with good stuff.

Scrap my last.