I’m fighting this battle now. My company already had a large scale flash system in place before they hired a chemist (me!) and now we are struggling to make it profitable. You can process several kilos a day (but you use a ton of solvents) but removing the ethanol / water mix from the oil is going to be a huge bottle neck.
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713-677-3553 Vinni
Tell him Phil posted his number all over the internet! lol.
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Currently, I am unaware of any chromatography solution capable of remediation at this flow-rate. Consider, with Flash Chromatography, that every kilogram of distillate loaded with use 20:1 to 50:1 solvent depending on the system. All of that solvent (typically an alcohol and water) needs to be removed. Fire Codes typically limit that amount of solvent onsite (to a lot less volume that you will require)… and C1D2 for ethanol and C1D1 for methanol (if your clients allow it). Then there is the energy required to do that… Quite honestly, you need to hire a large chemical process engineering firm to conduct the design for you. Plan on 16 to 24 months depending on permitting (air pollution is the biggest issue) on the optimistic side. You and your architect really need to understand the mass and energy balances in order to get the design right, and get things through the fire department.
In Flash chromatography, with a short bed depth, channeling in the column is problematic, and wipes out the separation. The larger the diameter, the more important it is to correctly pack the column. SMB is cool and used extensively in pharmaceutical. There will be a multiple month commissioning and start-up schedule to get the SMB fractions sorted out.
I’m expecting a disruptive technology in the next two years… I can’t even predict what it is quite yet. But 100+ kilograms per hour… I don’t want to be discouraging… well, read everyone else’s posts.
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Novasep?
Seriously, and I’m glad everyone agrees, the solvent usage to do 100kg+ of product a day is going to destroy you. Just starting with spill containment and classifying your facility to store thousands of gallons of flammable solvent, then power/gas for the insane amount of heating and cooling you’ll need for solvent recovery. And if you go with a company like rotachrom, the solvent recovery options they can provide are NOT compatible with cannabinoids, so you’ll be on your own.
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jphealy - I’ve got tricks for that problem… 
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This is where membrane (RO)
Comes in handy my guess 
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Shhh…
100 kgs a day remediated via chromatography is a pipe dream. I can share numbers of different systems with you - DM me.
Also with all the solvents you will use, what does your hazardous waste management plan look like?
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100 an hour 
I think that what most forget is that
A remediating by means of a catalyst is way way more cheaper and chroma can not compete
The separation of cannabinoids
And harvest of rare cannabinoids
Is a noble idea for sience but not for busniss research of cannabinoids is 10 years behind of the known familiar canabinoids and those are already beeing bred in strains
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I disagree. I think we both agree the minors are going to be hugely important but genetics themselves are not going to produce our products. We may be breeding for cbg, CBC, synthesizing cbn (catalyzed synthesis), etc, but the name of the game will be recombining specific cannabinoids in specific ratios outside of what the plant can naturally/be engineered to produce. This generally requires isolation and purification via chromatography and I don’t really see any way around it; you’ve still got to remove catalysts and unwanted materials.
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Fairly sure that if we get to that understanding of cannabinoids /ratio s
Wich is even further down the line in research wise
Synthesizing them is still the easiest
Imagine the by products amount to get to the minors
CBD and THC and CBG areTHCV are byproducts by that time in those quantity s . useless by products
Do the math you would have up to 1000kg of by product cannabinoid for 1 kg of minor cannabinoid pffff
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Care to DM me and lets talk about those?
I’m assuming your talking about Reverse Osmosis Membranes? Any starting points for SOPs or materials for that? I’ve seen talk on here before and some quick googling was a nasty rabbit hole and I have no idea whats reliable info.
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Sorry I’m extremely busy and did not have time to write up a full post on what exactly I’m looking for. The investor’s I have put together have large pockets to spend and I wasn’t comfortable posting the exact numbers on a public forum. I was mainly looking for someone to point me in the right direction so I can put together a proposal. Thank you
Thank you this was helpful, I’m going to shoot you a dm!
Cue the Godfather theme song
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Thank you for your input I will give them a call today
Yes this is what I’m mainly concerned about, they why I reached out on this forum to find someone with experience with chromatography equipment. We are located in North Carolina, as of now there are very little requirements and restrictions here for processing. Right now we have a 30,000 SQ ft facility under renovation, that can fitted to meet C1D2 requirements. Again I would not like to talk about the exact budget on public forum. We will need someone who is qualified to run the equipment. It’s okay I understand, I was mainly just looking to be pointed in the right direction with someone who actually runs chromatography equipment, and develop a proposal.
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How about a membrane to increase your ethanol purity
One of the things I’m working on now
I’m surprised no ones thought of this yet.
Proof up beads on a large scale isnt feasable
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Thank you, I graduated with my computer science degree, and have some of my colleagues working with me. I’m trying to change the way cbd products are consumed. Currently developing a few machines with mobile apps to control them. I want to understand the hemp business all the way from seed, to lab extraction. You seem very knowledgable about chromatography, I’m going to shoot you a dm if that okay so we can talk further.
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