A friend who did an extraction decided against using Klean Strip naptha, because he detected a light bluish tint to it.


Did the formula change? Did they add the tint to discourage its use for extractions?

Anything it can be replaced with, besides heptane?

I don't know about the Klean Strip per se, but a standard approach to purification here would be using a dash of activated charcoal to remove the blue tinge, followed by filtering through a bed of Celite. Distillation could be carried out at this point although there is a risk that the naphtha might have been further adulterated by the addition of nonionic surfactants. These can be largely eliminated by refluxing with concentrated sulfuric acid followed by acidified potassium permanganate, distilling off the naphtha and then, perhaps, refluxing with KOH.


This seems very likely. I've recently seen a few other solvent products adulterated with surfactants by the manufacturer.

There's a whole host of potential replacements - pretty much any saturated hydrocarbon will do the job, even candle wax! You just have to be prepared to work with the limitations presented by your particular choice of solvent. If you were really desperate, you could even prepare your own hexane by electrolysis of rancid butter!

Knowledge + creativity + opportunity = we always win

Thank you for your thoughts and knowledge. However, the prospect of extracting hexane out of butter seems like a long shot to me.

It would be for anyone! But look up 'Kolbe electrolysis' if you want to check what I mean. While not a serious suggestion, it's more of an illustration that with the requisite level of knowledge and determination you can achieve your goals.

So if the reason that the varnish makers and Painters use naphtha is because it leaves zero residue then how can they get away with putting a blue dye in it? wouldn't that ruin or alter the entire purpose of the product? Makes me wonder if the can that you your friend got opened/used before he bought it?

I don't know for sure, but I really doubt it. He got it specifically for this.

Naptha has just been put on a restriction in an area, can't find it anywhere and the guy on phone from a ma and pa Ace hardware says hes tried a few distributors and found out that way, he also says they will change the formula around and it will be out under some new kind or something. would someone use heptane V rosinol fluid in them yellow bottles. an eye as been kept on colemans camping fluid also seeing that's basically naptha

Do you think that restriction is going to end up being expanded to other areas? Might be a good idea to stock up.

I just opened a can of Kleen Strip VM&P Naptha, did the glass plate test with three drops, there is no visible residue. I know that coleman camp fuel had a blue tint when I tried to use it once, when I checked the MSDS it said that it had a few hundred parts per million something else added, when I talked about it on the nexus chat someone said it might be a rust preventative but who really knows for sure?
http://www.kleanstrip.co...nts/GVM46_SDS-LL227.pdf
That link is from the Kleen Strip website, the last time the msds was updated was 2016, it states this in regards to composition:
CAS # Hazardous Components (Chemical Name)
3. COMPOSITION/INFORMATION ON INGREDIENTS
Concentration RTECS #
64742-49-0 Hydrotreated light naphtha 95.0 -100.0 % NA
95% seems like pretty low purity to me, even coleman camp fuel said it was 100% until you looked at the PPM data, maybe it's being manufactured differently in different regions. I'm in the southwest US.

This post should be held up as gospel.