A small silicon gasket fell into my solvent and, apparently, dissolved. I didn't notice it missing until later on, after I had poured the solvent into some MHRB mud. Heh, that explains that permanent emulsion. Dammit.

Anyway my question is, solvent being somewhat hard to come by in my state, can it be salvaged? And has the silicon fouled my whole batch? (I am assuming so.) Will it just stay in solution in the solvent? Will it precipitate out along with the spice?

Anything you can tell me is very much appreciated.

What I would try to do is take the tainted solvent and perform a few acid washes on it(vinegar or other dilute acid). Then basify again into clean solvent. Silicon should not come out of a freeze precipitation, but a re-x sounds like a good idea after anyways.

Distillation would recover your solvent without 'silicon' impurities though this is not an option for many.

Hey, thanks! That's an enormous relief. I've been seriously worried that the resulting spice would be deadly or something; I shelved it all until I could find out.

I notice you put 'silicon' in halfquotes -- am I using the term incorrectly?


(p.s. love your tagline.)

Whoops, wikipedia straightened me out -- "silicone."