We are considering our options when looking at how to clean our ethanol after processing.
The two best options we want to employ would be using a molecular sieve or through freeze distillation (Mongolian still).
What we’re worried about is what impurities will be remaining after running through a sieve or freezing. Both these methods will remove much of the water, but not much else.
So the question is; what’s left in the ethanol? Does it effect consecutive runs?
Re distill the ethanol old fashion way. Using a still. Or something like that.
If you use molecular sieves make sure you clean them first and wash them with distilled water after each use
you can use distillation like @Siosis had mentioned, but the real issue is the terpenes building up in the etoh, and ph changes. Anyone got a good solution to deal with that stinky terpshine?
Exactly Soxhlet, this is my concern.
I hadn’t considered pH change. How would an altered pH effect the solubility of the ethanol?
Acidic or basic conditions may improve the “yeild” but may extract increased amounts of cellular garbage. Perhaps @cyclopath or @QGA would like to chime in.
The other factor will be potential isomerazation if your going to distillation.
could increased acidity also effect the constituents of the end product? like heavier amts of D8?
yes, any change in the ph will have effect with enough heat to get things going.
Thanks @Soxhlet
We are going to be using -80C ethanol to avoid winterization, so it’s critical that the ethanol not extract too many unwanted components. Particularity chlorophyll because we dont want to have to use a remediation filtration either
could this be monitored w/ litmus or pH strips to know when etoh would need to be “cleaned”? or would standardized cleaning of solvent be solid lab protocol? just trying to think cost v time v labor
So be wary of the claims that cold extraction bypasses winterization entirely as this is a bullshit claim perpetuated by delta and capna and I’ve been called in many times to fix issues with distillate only to just tell them they have to winterize cause they aren’t doing a true cryo wash.
It seems like the color remediation trick we use with nonpolar hydrocarbons isn’t as effective with solvents like etoh, although bentionite filtration does improve the clarity of the solution.
yeah for sure, most people are going through the ffe after extraction to concentrate the solution before winterizing, then back to the ffe after winterizing.
Good to know. We are assuming we will need some decoloring filtration, but we’re hoping the extreme low temperature ethanol will keep the green with the raffinate
your other solution is to dissolve in a non polar after first pass distillation and filter through silica 60, and some t-5.
All I do is cryo wash biomass in etoh, panda spun, buchner funnelnwith ONLY celite 545, rotovap, decarb, then spd and I get 90% light yellow distillate
This was my 2nd time ever running a spd.
Yeah, you could do that or titrate the solution.Only perform ph modification when needed.
Would this method be as effective at removing water from the solvent as a 3A molecular sieve? Would it catch impurities like phosphatides and terpes?
Also depends on your amount of water Content picked up vs your ethanol loss vs how much you process a day.
Rotos recover around 90% of the ethanol. Small amount lost in biomass. If you use 100 gallons a day you lose 10 a day and that 100 gallons is gone by the end of the week.
So as long as you keep track of how much what ethanol’s been used and keep a good supply line you can run your ethanol till it’s gone and restock before you even need to re proof it depending on how much your running per day and how much water your picking up per run. My warm washed Ethanol comes out almost the same clarity it went in at. As it slowly looses proof it begins to come back with more and more color
What data do you have on this? I’ve always seen good results
I share the same concerns. Switching to etho definitely was a huge upgrade across the board for me. But now there’s new things to learn, primarily about maintaining me etho, or calculating when it’s worth just getting new etho. I intend on researching the effects of
Etho extracting when going to distillation for sure.
