Butane or ethanol?

you can definitely get away walking around puffing on your vape, its when you’re sitting at a table or inside a club…

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Ah, that makes more sense.

702 represent!

There was one person in town selling native terps, but after sampling it it tasted/smelled like cold trap terps. CO2 definitely produced produced great terps for us as well, but we also switched to EtOH. The terp layer is great from BHO, but not quite as full of a flavor like we got from CO2.

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Does the delta cup series 15 winterize like the capna ethos 4?

What is the price tag on the cup 15? I have called but no return call yet, very anxious on hearing the bench marks of it.

I own a ethos 6 and use to work for precision and would stick with an ethos for distillate. I love it! but if your trying to run more than 200 pounds a day forget it.

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Have you worked with a delta cup? From what I hear the cup 15 pushes 3x the amount of weight. I just don’t see why I would take an ethos over a cup. I would love to hear your thoughts.

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Last quote I got from them was between 75-90k dependingbon options.

The centrifuge is the way to go. Better capacity, better solvent separation/return, better efficiency, and better solvent to weight ratios. I’d go with an AceSpinner, its designed by @cyclopath and @Photon_noir

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the Ace-15 spins harder than the CUP-15.
first biomass run showed only 0.2kg etoh in 4.5kg biomass!

I was restrained by my crew yesterday, so I’m still guessing, but I get the impression that the biomass is going to burn yellow not blue/invisible like the spent biomass from the CUP15 does.

I’ll gather that data while they’re looking the other way at some point :wink:

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So if I went with the ace-15 what extraction equipment would i shoot for?
Remember we are going for bulk thca distillate, I understand that might be a better setup but with price considered on a new lab, what would make more sense?

Is the small percent of ethanol recovery that much more of a profit margin to invest in both an extraction unit and a centrifuge?

What is THCA distillate? They are mutually exclusive. Are you meaning THCA isolate? Distillation requires full decarb otherwise you’ll have one hell of a mess on your hands.

A lot of information is needed to offer a valuable response. You can DM me if you’d like to discuss in more depth.

Please record and post. I’ll have the popcorn ready and waiting lol. Let it burn.:fire::fire_extinguisher: :rofl: :joy:

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If you are going to invest in a centrifuge, it should be your main avenue for extraction. Ethanol is the most scalable and tends to be the fastest way to (with proper filtration) to get to distillate. From the fuge, solvent recovery (still or falling film) and right to the short path or WFE to get you the rest of the way. If thc-a is what you are after, no need to have a solution for decarbing. Throughput requirements should determine which system is best for refining your crude.

Solvent loss will be your biggest expense, after purchasing all the equipment. If you lose 10-15% of your solvent in every extraction, it’s going to cost you in both solvent and lost cannabinoids. On a 30 gallon extraction, losing 3 gallons (10%) every time you extract means that 100 gallons of ethanol will get you a maximum of 23 extractions. If you are losing 1 gallon per extraction (3%) or less, you can get 70 extractions without purchasing more solvent. That is a huge cost savings. 55 gallons of good 190 proof will cost you about $2000. How much is that woth to you in shipping and solvent costs? Enough to push ACE for the win, in my humble opinion!

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I advise you extract in the centrifuge. You don’t have to, but it makes a lot more sense imo.

you would need exactly the same ancillary equipment with the Ace vs CUP. Delta has their own offering for solvent recovery (an FFE), and I’m working on it. It can be done with a simple pot still, but FFE or Rising film are more efficient & electrickery ain’t free.

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So is a rotary evaporator out of the question for bulk distillate?

Price ranges on FFE/rising films?

A rotovap or falling film get your solvent back. A process commonly referred to as distillation.

They will not yeild the purified cannabinoid product known as distillate.

That requires vacuum distillation in a SPD, WFE, Spinning Band, or sublimator.

Is there a reason to go to falling film instead of a rotorary evaporator?

We’re are between the delta cup and the ace-15 what would be the best recovery method of course price being a factor.

I suggest starting with this Ethanol Extraction White Paper

Either the CUP or the Ace will out pace a rotovap in short order if you are pushing them properly. Assuming you run the same solvent over your biomass 3 or 4 times, you’re looking at 2.5gal for every 10lb of cannabis you process. At 8lb for the CUP15 or 10lb for the ACE15, processed in say 20min, you’re looking at upwards of 50gal per 8hr shift. Marginal or not possible in a 50l rotovap in my opinion. (I should probably check the hard data that my minion gathered in that last week…)

Possible in as little as 3hrs in a 50gal moonshine still.

As far as price? Budget $120-$150k for an FFE that can get you back your solvent in better than real time (ie actually keep up and then some)…30l hr should suffice for the CUP. Might need a hair more for the Ace30. We’re hoping to pair the Ace 30 with a 150-200l/hr FFE once we hit our stride.

You can also get just the steel for only a couple of grand out of China if you’re good at that sort of thing

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To keep up you will need several 50L’s or really nice 20Ls (Hei-vap industrial, ecodyst, buchi) and at those prices, if you can, you might as well make the jump to the FFE. As @cyclopath said if you are rocking an Ace or CUP you will need a lot more than one roto.

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How long should it take? My winterization process is about six hours and 3 passes through the Buchner . Still trying to see if this will suffice