This forum has been a huge source of information for me and I really appreciate this community and everyone that has shared information here. I’ve learned a ton over the last few months by lurking on here browsing and searching. I’m planning my first lab and trying to wrap my head around the logistics.
I’ve got several questions that I haven’t been able to find exact answers to, and I’m hoping someone who extracts with ethanol at -70C or below can help me out. If any of these have been answered elsewhere please just point me in the right direction. Yes, I have seen Future’s equipment spreadsheet.
I’m planning to run non-denatured 190 proof ethanol chilled to -80C in a fuge. Seems like the Ace 30 is cheaper and rated to -70C, but more people are using the CUP 30 which is only rated to -40. Will I run into problems running -80C ethanol in either of these? Is there a reason to go with the cup over the ace?
If I can keep the temp of the ethanol below -67C throughout extraction, is a lenticular filter even necessary?
On Future’s equipment spreadsheet there is a recommendation to use pinnacle’s rising film evap. Is there a substantial difference between rising film and falling film? And is this still the best route to go, or are membranes for solvent recovery efficient enough to warrant getting one and going with a smaller FFE?
I’ve seen a few threads on types of industrial grinders and hammer mills, and I know that the type you get depends on your method of extraction. Does anyone that uses either the cup or ace at -80C have a recommended mill that reduces dry hemp to an ideal size, without producing a cloud of dust?
Electricity is cheap here, so I was looking at getting a solvent chiller that just uses electricity in order to avoid using LN2 or other consumables. But almost every post I’ve seen here on cryo extraction talks about using LN2 or dry ice, so I’m wondering if chillers that just use electricity to get to -80C are unreliable, not cost efficient, or if there’s another reason people aren’t using them?
If these fuges are the wrong choice to do -80C extractions, I’d love to hear recommendations for fuges that can do 500lbs biomass in an 8hr shift. Thanks for any help
You are on the right track. You don’t have to go as cold as you are planning. In my experience, -20 to -30°C is enough to keep anything from changing. LN2 is the most cost efficient in the right locations. You seem like you will be able to go much colder regardless. Dry ice and any number of solvents will get you to -78°C. But I filter no matter what, just to improve the quality of the product.
A high quality chiller will be much more cost effective than LN2. No really good reason I can think of to use a non-denatured solvent, especially if you properly decarb / devolatilize before distillation. It’s vastly cheaper due to not having TTB taxes
I’ve got my lawyer looking into it now, but I think we should be able to claim a drawback on the taxes paid for non-denatured so the cost difference should be negligible. Here’s a good explanation on why I’ll be using non-denatured:
We can run a cost analysis for you on membrane nanofiltration vs cryo extraction and/or solvent distillation. email me at noah@ecosce.com. You can get a basic idea with a few variable inputs from our website at Savings Calculator – Ecosce Incorporated.
For my plant I installed a 20 HP Dynalene chiller manufactured in America by G&D Chillers. This coupled with a plate and gasket style heat exchanger could chill enough solvent to keep us running 24/7.
It was going to be hooded up to a plate heat exchanger and a couple of holding tanks. We paid 60K for this unit. Project didn’t work out and it never even got charged up or turned on. Looking to get somewhere around 50K for it now. Still under manufacturers warranty too.
Yep. We had a nice plate chiller with ethanol compatible gaskets that would have been mounted right above the 1st solvent chilling reservoir. The system was sized with all the rest of the pieces to run 24/7 with plenty of margin.
