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Petroleum Jelly: Vacuum Residue Filtered Warm Through Bone Black
Petroleum jelly (petrolatum, vaseline) is what is left of crude oil after the lighter parts are distilled off, cleaned by filtering it warm through bone black. The 1907 US Dispensatory and Thorpe (1913) describe the process: the first colourless runnings become petroleum jelly, and the later, darker filtrate is cylinder oil.
The picture: white petrolatum (Wikimedia Commons).
Advanced
Several days
Instructions
1
1
Distil off the light cuts
Distil off the light cuts
Distil crude oil in an atmospheric column and draw off the lighter cuts. Keep the residue from the bottom.
Materials for this step:
Crude Oil1 tTools needed:
Atmospheric Distillation Column2
2
Reduce under vacuum
Reduce under vacuum
Distil the residue further under vacuum, heated by coils carrying superheated steam, not by direct fire. Done right, the reduced oil reaches a fire-test of 337.7 °C (640 °F) without any burnt smell.
Tools needed:
Vacuum Distillation Column
Vacuum Pump3
3
Filter warm through bone black
Filter warm through bone black
Melt the reduced oil and run it onto steam-jacketed filters of fine, granular, well-dried bone black, kept at 43.3–54.4 °C (110–130 °F).
Tools needed:
Steam-jacketed Filter
Bone Black
Thermocouple with Readout4
4
Keep the clear runnings
Keep the clear runnings
The first filtrate is colourless; it then turns straw or lemon, and finally red. Keep the clear runnings for petroleum jelly. The red filtrate is cylinder oil, a lubricant.
Tools needed:
Steam-jacketed Filter
Tin Can5
5
Set the melting point
Set the melting point
If the jelly is too soft, stir pure block paraffin into the warm oil until it has the right melting point. It dissolves completely. Pour it into tins to set.
Materials for this step:
Paraffin Wax1 as requiredTools needed:
Thermocouple with ReadoutTin CanTools Required
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