So we recently just pulled together some investors and we are looking to purchase a large scale chromatography machine. Large scale as in, remediation of 100+ kilo’s an hour. What method is the best CPC, flash, liquid, or gas chromatography? Also looking to get something with a relatively short lead time. Under 6 months. Thank you for you input!
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Thar process or chromatom rouselet robatel
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Nice, thank you I’m going to look into these companies.
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Not really trying to use CO2, our lab uses cold ethanol extraction.
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You do not have much options with ethanol as your main solvent in chromatography
I guess you will have to go with what works at that scale
Wich is extremely big by the way
I guess cristalization chroma mother liqueur and dissolve crystals in clean mother liquor makes sense
Be ready for a heart attac once you hear pricing and operation cost 
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Yes I have heard that the media is going to be super expensive. Would cold ethanol extraction → distillate → CRC be a good option? We need to be able to isolate cannabinoids, not just remove THC.
No offense but you pulled together investors to buy-in on large scale chromatography without having knowledge of what chromatography is available and having a basic idea of your path forward? What budget are you looking to hit because what you’re talking about requires initial capital expenditures in the millions, not to mention the operating costs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for media and solvent.
“We have investors and we want to PURCHASE a chromatography system” is a big red flag because with that kind of throughput you are 100% talking about a custom system. The only “purchasable” chromatography systems that get close to this throughput I can think of are the CPC systems and maybe some of the larger Biotage and Interchem flash chromatography systems.To point you a direction, this kind of large scale chromatography is used in the pharmaceutical industry for insulin production and other kinds of biological molecule separations.
Simulated Moving-Bed Chromatography was a road we were looking at. This would have involved working with the head of Chemical Engineering at a major university and also sponsoring a graduate student to do their PhD research on developing operating parameters for cannabinoid applications. This is an idea of what you have ahead of you (assuming you don’t already have a chromatography expert on your team in which case why are you asking here? 
).
EDIT: Oh and I completely forgot about the crazy solvent recovery requirements as well. Your cannabinoids come out of this in a solvent system that isn’t always easy to separate out. With 100’s of kg/hr distillate or ML throughput, you’re talking about 10s and potentially 100s of thousands of kg/hr of solvent throughput. That would require it’s own solvent recovery plant on it’s own.
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There is nothing off the shelf that can do 100s of kg per hour. There’s basically a few options.
- Buy a bunch of huge prep columns from pharmaceutical auctions and build your own setup to run them. The labor expended to get this done is intense, and the media is very expensive.
- Get an engineering group to build you a SMBC or CPC setup of adequate size. I don’t have hands on experience but i could recommend some groups who’ve gotten good reviews.
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Flash chroma would be a no go if you ask me solvent to oleo 1:20 minimum
Sepperating cannabinoid fraqtions even way higher
CpC seems reasonable but still a huge solvent neccesary
I would recomend getting in touch with Alfa laval and have them advise
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Save yourself the headache and millions of dollars and hire someone who knows the equipment and the facility/code requirements.
I can tell you that I’ve already worked with two groups utilizing two different chroma methods that spent over $1-2mill on chroma equipment alone that they cant even use. I’ve had to either help their run and train people on the chroma, or help convince them to send it back and reevaluate their needs and abilities.
Where are you located? whats your building classification? do you have fire suppression? whats your budget? do you have at least a couple million to devote to this? do you have someone qualified to be trained to run the equipment?
sorry if i sound harsh but there is no good answer to your question and I’ve seen so many people put the cart before the horse and fail and waste millions.
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Thar makes supercritical co2 chroma which has its advantages (way less solvent to store and recover). but also, costs millions.
I dont think alfa does chromatography?
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No but the do advise in industrial applications I have worked with them before and was amazed by their knowlidge and willingness to get things right for a fee of course
But that fee was money welllll spend
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I wonder if one realizes that this volume is closer to tens of millions then it is to millions 
The security alone to protect such a stash is gona cost you 
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Yup!
The SMB process.
There is now Thc remediation in-line. Etoh
Check out some new sops
I forget the French company I spoke with about their SMB systems and you are correct, there is very little expertise available regarding cannabinoids — the real issue is homogenizing feedstocks to reliever accurate pesticide remediation formulas or sops.
It’s a shit show but will be fun.
Probably nothin worth even talking about for 10 years. That’s a long road.
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Don’t fall into the 100,000 gallon methanol Vat!!
Im just having fun making jokes because this really is necessary work, it’s daunting yet also very doable. Get a sense of humor now because remediation is like playing basketball in the rain and trying not to get wet.
Chiral chromatography with almost no way to homogenize inputs.
Lots of consumables — sell that might make better money.
Oh and the membrane tech is finally getting somewhere it sounds like. So that’s exciting
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Nice website and great start. Most people are not even thinking about remediation…making safe and clean products is number 1 
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Pease don’t take this the wrong way, but your question is like saying,
“I just got a big investor for a hospital. What equipment can treat 100 patients per day?”
It’s far more complex than buying a giant machine with a short lead time, and you are in serious jeopardy of failure and litigation. I would most definitely connect with some experienced remediation guys before doing anything on that scale.
You could always call Vinni Villatoro. He connects guys with big chromatography equipment direct from China.
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Where do I find this Italian mans phone number?
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Global hemp solutions
Is where he can be found my guess
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