Constant buildup in material columns causing issues

[Mellow_Mush]

`Hello all!

Long time lurker, but recently decided to make an account in hopes of receiving some wisdom from all the knowledgeable members here.

Background:
Working for a large MSO for the past two years, starting in packaging and eventually earning a spot as a lab tech, becoming exposed to various methods of extraction.

The company recently acquired an MEP30 to make the venture into hydrocarbon extractions as we only did ethanol/solventless based extractions for the longest.

Received training for about a week by both ETS reps as well as others from within the company that have worked with this machine at other sites. With that being said, operating a closed loop system is still fairly new to me, with maybe 80-100 hours on my own running the machine. This is also new for all the lab members on my team.

The issue:
The reason I make the post is for an issue we seem to keep running into that has been a serious headache as well as a limiter on our overall production.

We pack our biomass into socks which are then packed into the material columns. We use a jacketed recovery tank, running at -60c. We fill material columns to soak with tane, using nitrogen to assist with pressure to send things to collection vessel.

Recently, without fail, every single material column becomes clogged at the bottom filter with a white powdery substance that resembles thca. It clogs so bad to the point it slows the drain of a material column to 20-30 minutes, taking an hour to process two socks at times. Our solution has been to simply change the filters at the bottom after every sock, which seems a bit redundant.

No one seems to know why or what is causing this build up or what it even is. Sometimes we have to poke it out of the bottom of the column because it forms a puck in the bottom of the cylinder.

Has anyone seen anything like this or have any idea what is causing this huge crash of something within the machine? I’ve attached a picture that shows what the filter looks like after processing one sock.

I would love to hear any insight or ideas about this issue. Thank you for your time.

[EverettMarm]

If you test it and it is THCA, congrats! You have ‘fast crash’ thought to be caused by contaminated gas. Also closely (mis)associated(?) with Medusa stones.

Hit up the search bar. You’ll find yourself in good company.

[cyclopath]

@Mellow_Mush

with a white powdery substance that resembles thca

IS THCA

[Sidco_Cat]

Medusa stone SOP

Ok, I want to see who else is able to reproduce Medusa stones. A bunch of different people have gotten Medusa stones but this is what I’ve been able to do to repeate chalk stones at different locations. If you experience THCa rapidly crashing when you jar it I can almost guarantee this will make chalk stones. Take thca that has been spun clean and redissolve in butane, it is a bitch to dissolve fyi. Once it is dissolve pour it thin as water into miner or jar. I would recommend a miner, one note…

[Sidco_Cat]

Its not iSoBuTaNe! A theory for cause of "Medusa"

We’ll start this off by saying I am openly admitting I claim no additional comprehension beyond those who have contributed various theories and concepts regarding the subject matter. In fact I would qualify myself as falling very short of others pertaining to their span of their understanding of this stuff. I also thought this would be better off in its own independent discussion thread so as not to steer any other conversations in different directions that could ultimately yield the corrective…

[Sidco_Cat]

It's not Methanol?! A Theory for Medusa, part 2

In part 1 some details regarding amine sweetening and merox treating of LPG were highlighted. This all began after initial discussions and theories were based on potential of hydrogen peroxide ppm being a possible cause, but it pertained mainly to the material not the solvent. There was a strong likelihood in our minds that the solvent was causing this “feature” to occur, and so we began taking a look at the refineries. Originally we thought potential contamination from residual ppm of Isobutan…

[Cryo13]

Oh yeah I’d be surprised if any extractor here hasn’t seen it, to some degree.

Are you letting the butane soak in the material columns?

[Apothecary36]

@Mellow_Mush

Background:
Working for a large MSO

Get me on retainer and I’ll help. Not sure why anyone would help an MSO for free

[Pupparoo]

I work at an mso, for shit pay, cuz the passion, fam.

[Cannachem]

This is super easy to fix implementing 2 or 3 processes for CIP and daily teardowns and cleaning if not already implemented.

[globtek33]

A good consultant could get you guys up and running more efficiently!

[Mellow_Mush]

Yeah, we fill columns and let the socks soak for 5 minutes

[Mellow_Mush]

We gotta start somewhere man. Sorry

[Mellow_Mush]

Currently after runs we fill each column with around 5lbs of clean tane and send to the collection chamber to recover in order to clean the lines out.

[cyclopath]

Which doesn’t work because your thca is not soluble in cold butane…

[Lil_Kelpy]

Yea when I started out I payed for @spdking 's neighbor to help me which gave me great insight on closed loop extraction and into Elliotts former life before the fame.