Looking for some help with degassing extracted biomass. We have a new lab coming up that should be able to do 300lbs/day but have not been able to find out a process for degassing that much. We have looked into tumble driers and cascade ovens as well as many other oven options but the thought of basically having kindling mixed with ethanol in an oven is scary. We could get a trailer storage unit and retrofit it to have fans blowing through it. We have also looked into using acetic acid bacteria to turn the ethanol into vinegar. We are in an area where its cold half the year so just leaving stuff outside is not an option. Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated.
Click on the link, read the advice, if you still have questions…ask there
Just get it wet. It’s ethanol not hydrocarbon. Ethanol will be diluted with water
2 Likes
Ethanol is a hydrocarbon… Just not organic … just saying. Also 300lbs is only like 4 big trash cans
3 Likes
Just throw it out. Trust me, most ethanol processors are not devoting much thought or effort here.
They are just flipping and emptying their socks into 3 or 6mil trashbags, and sending it to the dump.
I’m speaking from experience at a lab doing 1200-1500/day.
3 Likes
Centrifuge is key
1 Like
Id have to figure out some profitable I could make off spent biomass. Compost… hemp Crete, something
3 Likes
All of this dude… there’s soooo much waste material it’s a flippant shame.
Nobody has figured out a profitable means of managing it yet it seems.
I always thought a cannabis fiber replacement for plastic ware would be amazing, it’s just a manner of sorting out the binding agent.
Hell even fire pellets…
4 Likes
It really is terrible. The fact that we can’t just compost it is a damn fucking shame.
2 Likes
ding ding ding…
4 Likes
Ethanol is not a hydrocarbon, tis an alcohol. It is also most definitely organic.
1 Like
“Ethanol is a member of the alcohol hydrocarbon derivative family of chemicals. All alcohols are flammable and toxic to some degree. Hydrocarbon derivatives get their name from the fact they are hydrocarbons to start with and have other chemical elements added to create a new chemical that has some economic value.”
1 Like
I’ve talked to multiple labs that are/were paying a dumpster service to just haul thousands of pounds of it away per week, undoubtedly to be buried in a landfill. Which is a crying shame considering that even post-extraction it’s still got significant nitrogen content and makes a fantastic soil amendment and compostable ingredient, especially here in the southwest where our soil is full of sand and clay and not so full of nutrients that plants crave.
If the USDA/FDA would get out of the way and give hemp GRAS status the fresh and not moldy stuff makes a great animal food. Pigs love the seeds and the flower is high in protein and low in carbs, I.E. it’ll build muscle without making them fat. Unfortunately due to aforementioned acronym agencies those can’t be fed to animals intended for consumption or produce products like milk that are. And some animals that won’t be consumed like horses can’t be fed it due to regulations put forth by orgs like the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) who have stated that animals which test positive for cannabinoids will be DQ’ed from competition (Source: https://www.aqha.com/-/positive-tests-for-cannabis-products-will-result-in-violation)
So where does that leave us? Rock and a hard place for now. I’m selling off supersacks for use as a compostable, clean fill and soil amendment here in CO for $15 per supersack and have been able to take the spent product from a couple of other labs as well. If hemp was given GRAS status like other animal feeds already have that price would go up dramatically. Farmers feeding livestock can’t get 500 lbs of a high protein feed ingredient for anywhere close to that price point, hell, selling it for half of what the local co-op gets for something you can legally feed to your cows or pigs would be a dramatic improvement for many labs who are hurting given the market dynamics of hemp crude and other derivatives.
4 Likes
Not trying to turn this into a competition of who can swing their dick around more. Just trying to provide the facts clear so people dont get the wrong idea.
Hydrocarbons are compounds that are made of only hydrogen and carbon - hence HYDRO-CARBON. Alcohols are derived (made from) hydrocarbons but also have a hydroxyl group (OH) attached.
Alcohols are very polar due to the oxygen that is attached.
Hydrocarbons are very non polar.
5 Likes
In my state we are required to pay for waste pickup and the pickup company uses a gas sensor and wont take any of our waste if they detect any flammable gasses (Butane/Propane in my case). We off-gas on a baking rack for 24 hours inside our booth, then let it sit outside and rinse the waste down with water and we are still detecting butane. We recently have started to grind all biomass before extraction hoping that will help.
Any advice is appreciated.
Basicly the isseu I had recently got solved by passing hot (150C ) nitrogen gas treu the biomass prior to unloading from the bho rig And pulling a hard vacuum after heating up the internal biomass to 50C
It takes me about 15-20 min
BUT my vessel is 540 Liters and my biomass is not in socks nor is my biomass compressed it s yust poured in my heating is done by two gas/air
Heaters 1200w each Controled by a variac
Contemplating on changing this
To a condensor style heating element where the heating element go s in the center pipe and the vacuum pump exhaust with 3 way ball valve go s
Treu the jacket of the heater center pipe ( heating element is a thermostated element from bathroom towel heaters ip 66 not atex but outside of the building where the exhaust of the vacuum pump is
So to be able to keep the heater on continuously and not having to switch on and off
2 Likes
Are your trays/containers on the rack perforated? We store our off-gassing ground biomass in these perforated trays on a wire rack. Choice Full Size 6" Deep Anti-Jam Perforated Stainless Steel Steam Table / Hotel Pan - 24 Gauge
The biomass is completely off-gassed within 24 hours. How solvent filled is your biomass coming out of your extractor? Our socks are basically coming out of the machine bone dry, no solvent drips.
1 Like
I would look for a different trash company lol. Which state are you in?