It’s a matter of batch vs continuous. The falling film she is running now allows her to remove solute as it accumulates vs having to wait for recovery.
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@710ST. Does the solution she removes full of solvent? And if so, do you know how much solvent loss happens per run… I guess vs how much material per run. Thanks.
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Good question. I come along a lot of people that hate on open blast, but then I also see a lot of labs just open blast out their closed loop lol
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seems like thats the way to do it now
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Its cool to do the hill Billy tek where you blast a Mason jar full of liquid hash and stick in the freezer
Not to be confused with @TheWillBilly tek
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All done in a c1d1 room and explosion proof freezer though. The bad happens when billy Joe bob tries to mimick these procedures in a kitchen with a normal food freezer.
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Yep. Im surprised that guy didn’t blow himself up. But hey thats why its hill Billy tek. They use chest freezers
Pretty sure @murphymurri can’t blast solvent in her lab without setting off the evacuation alarm
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I run a custom falling film, there’s exactly as much or as little gas in my oil as I want based on the temp I recover at - just like any falling film.
And everyone gets super hung up on trying to predict fractions but this is totally unnecessary. Just like any other column chromatography you don’t need to know where your fractions are you just need to collect enough of them to be able to identify them later.
I collect fractions by volume of solvent recovered. I get jars of just terpenes, jars of terpenoids and cannabinoids, jars of just wax, jars of just waste, and ultimately that is what gives me complete control over formulating my final product.
You know that lemony/astringent smell most people complain about when smoking dry trim? I get that in one jar and can leave it out of the final product. Easy af. Fractions are not hard to collect - and they aren’t hard to identify either because cannabis oil travels through a clay/silica bed in very predictable ways. A detector would be nice but unless its detecting contaminants I honestly don’t think it will do much more for me than I can accomplish by measuring solvent and volume.
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How can you measure when to cut into the next fraction? Measuring the solvent? Wouldn’t every strain be different as they each carry different levels of each fraction? Also wouldnt yield affect how much solvent is needed?
I do not know about that.
Edit: Are you capable of fractioning things like carotenoids or do those come off in your “waste” fractions?
Yup I can pull them in a section that is mostly on their own. They will overlap a little with the stickier cannabinoid fractions with my normal silica/t5 mix. If I use a more acidic column I can force them out a little earlier - which is how I can get really clear crystals quickly because that bright orange slippery oil is out of the way. They are very soluable in butane and propane so they can be manipulated in the column and come out at nearly the same time every run. I’ll try to find a good pic of this and update my comment in a minute.
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So I wonder, pulling all these different fractions, is there anything leftover in the media?
I only ask because you mentioned pulling all the way through to a waste fraction. It’s sort of implied that anything left in the media would be waste anyhow, but I wonder because I’ve seen some neat stuff left in media.
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Yes, every strain is slightly different. I don’t stop running solvent through my column till oil stops coming out and I maintain 100psi in my column the entire time. I can collect 10 fractions and only 4 of them are unique. Or I can collect 30 fractions and 14 of them will be unique. The more fractions you pull the more unique they will be - and the more separation you can observe. You can also switch gas mixtures during the run to limit waste or target terpenes etc etc. You have SO MUCH control when you can rip your oil apart into all its basic parts.
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Why?
I think DE provides a fantastic 3D matrix for the remainder of powders to sit atop. Really curious about this.
Edit: because I see later that you use T5, which is a brand name neutral (bentonite clay).
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agree with this overpacking and using crc esp with high yielding stuff will slow the crc down lots — prewetting def helps
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Yes definitely lots of interesting things can get left behind as insoluble or just physically absorbed. My columns are jacketed to be heated or cooled to optimize solubility in my favor.
I also heard our used media like a crazy person because testing it for residual cannabinoids is important for verifying SOPs and because sometimes really really weird stuff comes out of there that I am dying to learn more about. Testing the residuals in the media is how I choose which media to use.
Also, as an extractor and not a grower, the waste tells me so much more about the material than the good stuff we pull out of it.
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sorry a little off topic, but do you tend to find a high percentage of cannabiniods left behind in the powders? And do you notice it to tend to be more of one specific cannabinoid by chance?
Bro like for realz n I body wants to listen
that’s a pretty broad brush you’re painting with there…you sure you’ve got a good handle on the subject matter?
maybe you can catch @murphymurri’s next Chromatography class?
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I know it’s been almost a year since this post, but I’ve been having CRC clogging issues. I’ve read through all the threads and just created an account to ask about them; this is my first post and you certainly seem to know your stuff!
When I’m putting celite on top, it doesn’t seem to help. I’ve tried putting a few inches of celite (in a 4" CRC spool) and I still have a lot of issues with flow, until I get to about 30 PSI in the collection pot. Then, the flow goes much better. I’ve tried a number of different things to keep fats from getting into the CRC, but no dice. I’m starting to wonder if it’s vapor locking at the bottom or something. Would you have any ideas?
It’s gotten really bad since a recent batch of machine-trimmed material; that’s a big part of what makes me suspect it’s fat buildup. But no matter how I try and handle it, it just keeps clogging.
I’d love to give any info that would be useful. Thank you for your time!