[Histonet] Tissue Tek VIP 6 and contaminated alcohol

[Elizabeth Chlipala]

Maria

Readings on hydrometers are normally calibrated to read 100% at a temp usually lower than room temp.  I think something like 59-60F.  To use an hydrometer you need to also know the room temperature and there is a formula for you to use to calculate the real percentage of alcohol.  If your room temp is above 60F you are going to be subtracting from the hydrometer reading.  I have a table, and a formala that I can e-mail later.  I do not have access to it right now.  That table may be in your recyclers operating manual, it is in ours.

I do have one other question are you using your recycled alcohol as 100% alcohol on your tissue processor?  If so I would be slightly concerned even if you are only rececyling your absolute alcohol you will not be getting back 100% from the recycler.  It would be lower than 100%.  The other thing is that addition of water to your alcohol and it becoming cloudy tells me that it is contaminated with xylene or whatever solvent you are using.  If that is the case then you need to dispose of that alcohol and start from scratch over again.  You can not remove xylene from alcohol through the recycling process if you are using a fractional distallation unit (one that has a tank and heats up).  Thats why you can not recycle any alcohols that contain xylene such as those used in the cleaning cycle or after the xylene in the deparafinzation steps.  There are other types of units on market that filter the impurities out of the alcohol, I'm not as well veresed on those and I could not tell you for sure if they remove xylene from the alcohol, I know that they don't remove water, the percentage of what you put into those units is the percentage you will get out.

Liz

Elizabeth A. Chlipala, BS, HTL(ASCP)QIHC
Premier Laboratory, LLC
PO Box 18592
Boulder, CO 80308
(303) 682-3949 office
(303) 881-0763 cell
(303) 682-9060 fax
liz <@t> premierlab.com

Ship to address:

Premier Laboratory, LLC
1567 Skyway Drive, Unit E
Longmont, CO 80504
________________________________________
From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu [histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Maria Samaan [mmsamaan <@t> gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2013 10:35 PM
To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: [Histonet] Tissue Tek VIP 6 and contaminated alcohol

The 100% alcohol on our processor has been contaminated lately and I have
been unable to pinpoint the cause.

Our processor recently had a PM and checked out ok.

The alcohol was cloudy when tested with water, which is how we normally
test for purity before/after the recycler.  I was told by the manufacturer
that I should check the alcohol with a hydrometer, the used 100% alcohol
from the processor was over 100% (which I have never seen before).  I also
checked a new bottle of alcohol and it also read over 100% so then I
wondered if the hydrometer is calibrated only to a specific alcohol or if
it has been damaged.

So far our tissue seems to be processing fine but I would like to fix this
before it becomes an issue.

Thank you for any input,
Maria Samaan
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