18
(3)
Close
the
HP ALKANE TO BOOSTER
and
CO
2
INLET TO BOOSTER
valves.
The gas booster is now filled with CO
2
.
(4)
Fill
the syringe pump completely with liquid ethane. Follow the procedures in the
Xtreme manual for refilling the pump. To extract liquid from the ethane cylinder it
may be necessary to place the cylinder in warm water while filling the pump. It will
take time for the liquid to transfer. Depending on the temperature ethane liquefies
around 610 psi. See
http://webbook.nist.gov/chemistry/
for detailed information
about the properties of liquid alkanes.
Open
the
HP ALKANE TO BOOSTER
to fill
this void as well.
(5) The nitrogen cylinder can be connected, but does not need to be open until the
cleanings steps. Set the cylinder pressure to between 125-150 psi.
At this point the system is ready for reverse micelle preparation work. The
remaining steps are provided as an example of how to load the syringe pump with
extra grams of ethane. This is optional, and does not need to be performed for
routine operation of the instrument. However, this operation might be useful if a
higher starting pressure is desired, or if the time between syringe pump recharges is
to be increased.
Only perform this procedure with the gas booster reservoir filled with
CO
2
to act as a brake for the internal separator. If the reservoir is
empty and subsequently filled entirely with alkane the piston would be
moved to the fully displaced position. Later additions of liquid CO
2
may not be sufficient to push the separator back into position and as a
result the transfer step may not work as expected because of
insufficient distance for the piston to travel.
(6) With the syringe pump fully filled with liquid ethane and the pump
INLET
valve
closed
, set the pump to pressurize to 7,000 psi. With the HP ALKANE TO
BOOSTER valve already open this will pressurize the gas booster to 7,000 psi.
Once complete proceed to the next step.
(7)
Close
the
HP ALKANE TO BOOSTER
and
OUTLET
valve on the pump and
fully refill the pump again with liquid ethane. Be sure to
Close
the
INLET
valve on
the pump after the refill step.