absolutely…presumably there are others who might be more forthcoming
I’m getting pressure to set up multiple Aquatek columns for a hemp extraction facility, and I’m both trying to wrap my head around the utility of this strategy and a rational implementation on an EX-80.
I’ve done plenty of chromatography over the years, I just don’t understand the mechanics of getting the goods loaded onto the column(s) in this case. generally you load in one solvent, then elute with another. or load very concentrated, then elute with clean solvent.
In order to extract the 80lb of material, I need about 200lb of solvent. In order to subject that 200lb of oleoresin carrying solvent to chromatography, one has to actually get all the goods loaded onto the column without washing them through. just running 200lb solvent through the column and collecting aliquots every 10lb does not actually fractionate the input in any real sense. unless it takes more than 200lb of solvent through the column before the first interersting stuff starts eluting.
to me that suggests I need to recover most of the solvent before loading onto the column, down to well less than a bed volume I would imagine. the bed volumes I’ve seen folks using look pretty small.
no idea what I’m missing. hoping someone can point me in the right direction.
my current working hypothesis is that my handler doesn’t understand the problem, and is asking for this based on their instagram feed. which might even make sense if we weren’t extracting hemp.