I’m currently attempting to improve color and overall cleanliness of my winterized CBD crude. I’m using a 4”x24” glass column and activated alumina, silica gel, and T-5. For 1 gallon of crude, how much of each media should I use? How much pressure? And what is the ideal temperature of the solution entering the column ? I’m adding heptane at a 8/1 ratio. Should I clean up the material at this stage or after the distillation?
Amount of media is dependant on the column type, you need to have headspace to pour and not disturb your bed (in traditional chromatography, I think what you’re doing is more of a decolorisation column). You want the least mass possible in chromatography so if you were doing some sort of separation you would want to use the most refined form you could use. This is also true for crude decolorization but not as crucial because you’re just trying to capture gunk, but beware that gunk can lock your column up so for this reason you must do the trial and error yourself to figure out each individual load mass/volume before you need to change media. So for ease of operation if you have the time and capacity to do it, you would be better off using distillate.
I think having your solution at 30 def C would suffice as the methods I’ve seen used with analytics column heaters in the past range from 30 to 37 deg C. Make sure if you’re heating your mixture you’re in a well ventilated area.
Pressure is dictated by your column.
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