Hello guys,
I’m new to the group. Thanks in advance for any help. I’m setting up a Type 6 ethanol distillation lab in San Diego. I’m the project manager, not the lab tech. I am working with the tech and am responsible for procuring all the hardware. We are finalizing our equipment lists. We already have two Delta Separation CUP 15’s and a lab society 20L Roto Vape. We are on the fence if we want to get a BR Spinning band or a FFE set up to handle all of the crude we will be producing with the CUP 15’s. We want to be running about 400lbs of biomass a day. We have plenty of space, a healthy budget and plenty of access to bio mass. We are at the point where we are ready to purchase the rest of the gear and don’t want to buy something we regret later. We are also trying to avoid any bottle necks. I spoke with @Future last week and he recommended Busy Bee FFE. Any and all input is appreciated.
Your gonna need a 50liter roto or two! Ffe is a good way to go if you are in heavy production, you just need 300 liters of solvent or so to start seeing the practicality of that system.
Those rotovaps wont cut it. If you have the budget, wiped film short path distillation 100%.
B/R spinning band is the shit but expensive but would still get a wiped film distillation unit like a pope or something for first run
Any particular manufacturer @SoStupendous for wiped film?
A Chemtech Services system or a VTA. Either should do you well. Avoid a Pope if you have the budget.
Spinning band serves a different purpose than FFE.
FFE is a bulk solvent recovery system. You would most likely be using this to recover 100’s of liters of ethanol (maybe some other solvent) from crude. You would not purify cannabinoids with this setup.
Spinning band would then take the crude that has had the majority of solvent removed and purify it. Spinning band can recover and purify solvents, but not at rates like that. You do not have to completely remove solvent like you would for a WF. This allows for convenience in things like leaving enough solvent to easily transfer (without a heat gun).
If you’re trying to achieve solvent evaporation and don’t need to pull your cannabinoids out of your waxes, but have a decent budget, you should consider a Wiped Thin Film Evaporator rather than a Short Path. A Thin Film is better at handling the vapor volume you will be pulling, Short Paths are better for deeper cuts.
I don’t know that much about Spinning Band but it seems like they are more designed for fractionation, like a Short Path, and so wouldn’t be ideal for handling the vapor volume you are going to pull when you are doing solvent reclamation. (Can anyone with hands on experience with Spinning Band confirm this?)
Honestly it seems like there are good reasons to go with a vacuum rated jacketed reactor with a good mixer for your first solvent evaporation pass and then finish in a Thin Film. Some engineers I work with suggest this. Not the cheapest way to go, but you would need a way smaller Thin Film that way, and you wouldn’t need big Rotovaps.
Key things to remember:
A FFE will not get 100% of your solvent out, and the bigger it is the faster your evaporation, but also the greater your loss to surface adhesion.
The last 10% of the solvent you are pulling will take more than half the time you will run evaporation, this is especially true in a Rotovap, where you can get most of the solvent out but you will have to run it for a long, long time.
A heated vessel with a quality mixer and a good vac pulled on it (make sure the vessel is rated for vac!) will pull a lot of the solvent out, though it isn’t a good solution for getting 100% out.
A Thin Film Evaporator (wiped film) is a good solution for getting the last of your solvent out, and you can get one for a price comparable to a quality large Rotovap if you look the right places. Could in theory be used for your bulk solvent evaporation too, but you would need a really big one which would be way expensive and you would end up with the same problems of loss to surface area you face with a FFE.
Oh, I see BR posted above and covered my Spinning Band thoughts. My bad for not checking the sources of prior posts before I posted.
Hello Dan, We are setting up our lab in Palm springs. We too have the Cup-15. We were just about to order colorado extraction systems spray vape it is a monster at recapturing your ethanol. which is needed because the cup is a beast. we are still looking at final distillation equip. we have been looking at the myers vacuum pilot 15 or the BR SBD. which way did you go and hows it working out for you.
Has anyone had any experience with myers pilot 15?
I think @Photon_noir has experience with the myers and wasn’t happy with it.
Also, the sprayvap is inferior to any one of the 3 stainless FFE options on the market right now (Bizzy, TruSteel, @PinnacleStainless)
Lmfao please dont tell me you’re serious when you call the CUP15 a beast 
… It’s a good small scale workhorse, if you can even consider it a workhorse… its borderline one lmao.
I support the pinnacle SRS, great unit with peer review that has been avail for a few months now…
we have a bunch of WFE available for sale in San Diego
Clearly you haven’t worked with the new cup15 2.0. At 12 lbs extracted every 16 minutes or 36lbs every hour tell me any other ethanol extractor that moves that much material?
Co2 is like watching paint dry
BHO is too dangerous and honestly in the oil game consumers are moving away.
So please I’m open to anything. Tell me what ethics extractor is faster?
Oh now it makes sense your still a Bho fan. That’s cool. I’m just a etho guy. To each his own.
Thanks for heads up. I’ll try and reach out to him to get feedback. There’s not a lot of data on Meyers. But being an engineer myself i like the science.
More like 8-10max lbs every 15 min FYI. Get some hands on time and you’ll learn very quick packing 12lbs just isn’t practical in production. Enjoy unpacking those tight bags 
You’re being a bit brash and jumping to conclusions about @karmabob here. I don’t think anything he has said thus far warrants such disdain. Please respect one another. Thank you! 
No, @Photon_noir, not jumping to conclusions. He accused me of favoring BHO. I literally know his type, that accuse others of something or the other; yatta yetta…
Anyone who remotely knows me, or looks back at my other posts, knows I despise hydrocarbons personally… lmao.
Lucky I didn’t leave the post I deleted after posting.
There are systems pushing 500lbs an hour through cryogenic ethanol processes, as we speak.
The truth is the CUP is inferior to any system that runs cryogenically (from initial design conception, not adapted over time to be jacketed), and has larger capacity while still only requiring 1-2 operators to manage.