Petroleum Ether

About This Product

Choosing petroleum ether starts with the boiling range. The product (CAS 8032-32-4) is a blend of light aliphatic hydrocarbons, mostly pentanes and hexanes in the lighter cuts, with no single composition to quote, so the cut is what the buyer specifies. A low cut of about 30–60 °C can be driven off at gentle temperatures, which protects heat-sensitive extracts. Cuts of about 60–90 °C and 90–120 °C are slower to evaporate, so less is lost when the solvent is handled in open vessels. The range chosen also governs how readily the solvent can be recovered afterwards.

Analytical laboratories know it best as the solvent written into many standard crude fat procedures. Being of low polarity, it dissolves triglycerides while most sugars, proteins and other polar constituents stay in the sample. Natural product and essential oil extraction, chromatographic elution, dissolving oils, waxes and resins, and cleaning and degreasing account for its other uses.

Despite the name, there is no ether oxygen anywhere in the product. The word is a relic of an era in which any highly volatile, flammable solvent tended to be called an ether, and the same material is also sold as light petroleum, petroleum benzin or ligroin. It is clear, colourless and highly volatile, does not mix with water, and is a good solvent for fats, oils and waxes.

BG Petro Chemicals supplies petroleum ether at 99 percent minimum purity in 140 kg drums or ISO tanks; the cut and the full specification are settled at quotation. According to the cut, it is classed as highly or extremely flammable, it is an aspiration hazard, and its vapour may cause drowsiness. Follow the safety data sheet, which can be requested along with current specifications and available batch documentation.