You should be running the wiper faster IMO, slower feed rate is generally the other perameter to adjust
Shorter residence time and thinner film is the gist of it
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How fast do you recommend?
Whatâs the viscosity of your crude at your feed temp?
Send me a sample and Iâll run it on my handy dandy synchro-Lectric Viscometer, we can dial your process in with SCIENCE and DATA
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We try to get it pretty thin, and unless you live in oklahoma i cannot send a sample
just speaking from personal experience, i know thereâs people doing it but IMO even if youâre doing terp stripping in a WFE, ethanol present will lead to vacuum issues (via oil contamination), especially if youâre using diffusion (again oil contamination) and especially if youâre going to use that same unit for the cannabinoid passes after the terp strip pass. if youâre running the cannabinoid passes on a separate unit this is less of a concern.
rotos are fine for this as theyre set up specifically for solvent removal (i realize people use these for terp strips as well, i donât consider them efficient enough to use for really anything in my own lab).
certainly my statement is more binary than the complex reality around this, you got me on that. i just think for this particular situation thatâd be a good first step/something to be on top of
I typically run hotter on my volatile/terp strip, 150c. With a good cold trap, a little EtOH is not a problem,
I would never run a diffusion pump on a volatile strip. Never.
Our unit uses rollers, not wipers. My understanding is that wipers have âridgesâ the force the material downward so unlike rollers, a faster wiper speed means *less * residency time. No? @Rowan
My 2 centsâŚ
We also have trouble keeping the vacuum under 350mTorr when feeding. Im not sure if its due to us possibly not stripping terps as well or if i need to rebuild to entire system. Which seems a lilttle much to me sense we can reach 49mTorr with just pulling vacuum and no feeding. This entire thing has been driving me up a wall.
Took a lot advice and did our 2nd pass today, still horribly dissatisfied with the distillate color, and twice as unexcited to get it tested since im assuming it will fail.
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really like 350mTorr-500mTorr. And from what ive learned you cannot run this process above 500mTorr, which i already know the lower vac the better.
@CdpIchem is correct, the angles ridges in WFE blades force material downwards with each swipe, so increased RPM means material travels across the still body faster, meaning less residency time. for myself, I leave my wiper RPMs the same no matter what iâm doing, i think itâs easier to find a speed you like and then adjust other parameters around it.
theyâre also right in that volatile strips should never be done with diffusion, and should be done with more than ample condensing power to protect the efficiency of your vac pumps. so, volatile strip without diffusion, cannabinoid pass with diffusion.
iâd also recommend hot condenser tek on cannabinoids passes, for example we set our still body to 180C and our condenser to 120C. This helps ensure that if there are any non-cannabinoid volatiles remaining after your volatiles strip pass, theyâll evaporate off the still body and NOT condense with the cannabinoids on your condenser; instead theyâll remain a gas and continue towards your cold trap.
finding the correct temp for this method is something youâll have to figure out relative to your vac and heat parameters; youâll know youâre in the right range if you see a greenish/yellowish material accumulating in your cold trap flask, which will be a mix of volatiles that exist right next to cannabinoids on the boiling point spectrum, and a small amount of cannabinoids themselvesâtotally worth sacrificing in the name of higher purity.
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I run a 4" pope for the past year. Here are my parameters.
1st pass:
Internal: 20C
Main Jacket: 140C
Vac: Under 600 mTorr
Wiper Speed: 210RPM
Feed Speed: Gravity Fed at 1.75L Per hour
2nd Pass:
Internal: 60C
Main Jacket: 160C
Vac: Under 200mTorr
Wiper Speed: 210RPM
Feed Speed: Gravity Fed at .25L per Hour
We use mainly co2 oil for crude oil made from mostly trim so our average % is 80-90% depending on starting material used. Sometimes we use BHO rework and get higher because its bud around 85-95% end product.
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Why such a slow feed rate on the 2nd pass?
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To make sure I get all the THC out of the product I can. If not you will lose product on your waste side.
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