You expend FAR more resources with pigment remediation than you do with the yield loss of simply doing a better EtOH extraction and not getting any green through at all.
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I think that’s pretty arguable pending on efficiencies in process. It’s certainly easier, but I think you’d be hard pressed to get enough data to back up the claim of FAR more resources. Charcoal turns green to gold in seconds. In line process is super easy, and low losses.
I’d honestly think that between winterizing and color remediation you’re gonna have the same losses as you would with process inefficiencies due to colder solvent. The deciding factor is likely just heating and chilling $$ equipment cost and energy over time. I think things like scale and final product are going to dictate what temperature and process is best.
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You also lose yield on cannabinoids, and you also add additional man-hours. In small batches it might not be a big deal but for large batches it is. You’re probably right that it depends on the efficiencies, but I would argue that there is a pretty clear thermodynamic argument that the earlier in any process you make gains, the easier those gains come.
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That, and there doesn’t seem to be any way of increasing extraction efficiency of the target compound without also pulling undesirables (with ethanol anyway). Warmer extractions leave less cannabinoids on the biomass with shorter soak times, so that factor should also be considered when considering cannabinoid yields and labor.
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Sure, but if I have to choose between 48 man-hours to remediate an 10% oil yield and eventually only get 8.5% after loss and and 12 man-hours on an 8% oil yield starting out of the gate, I know what I’d choose. Particularly since every remediation step increases the chances of a failed batch, and that above math presumes that all remediation will be successful.
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If you wind up with 60% less debt, with a 5-10% less efficient process, your 5-8% cost of borrowing money coupled with your newfound ability to build, yet another lab with cheap equipment, may quickly trump your efficiencies argument as well.
It’s more complex to remediate, but I certainly don’t doubt ease of automation these days either. Coupled with what your market demands… There’s a bunch of variables in here.
All about the mighty $$ when it comes down to it!
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I like doing both a nice first pass. Then on the 2nd I concentrate it
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Valid points, but another factor to consider is ethanol usage and solvent recovery times. Warmer ethanol can hold many times more cannabinoids than cold, so 100 gallons of warm etoh can be used to extract much more biomass than cold etoh before it needs to be distilled. If that means you’re spending 1/3 to 1/4 of the time recovering ethanol because you only had to use 1/3-1/4 of the solvent in the first place, that’s huge. Especially considering ethanol recovery seems to be the most common, most expensive, and most expensive to fix bottleneck by far in ethanol extraction.
To be honest, I’m only playing devil’s advocate here. I’m still partial to cold ethanol myself, but I do see these as valid arguments for ditching cold etoh in favor of room temp or 0c etoh. Or even switching solvents entirely in favor of room temp heptane extractions with methanol winterization since chlorophyll and other more polar contaminants seem to be much harder to remove than fats and waxes. It’s going to take a lot of research and calculations based on my own circumstances before I would ever switch from cold etoh, but I think it’s important to stay open minded in order to adapt to the challenges of scaling up and whatever the market might throw at us.
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Nope do both. First pass and second pass hybrid the program get best of both worlds
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Both as in a cold initial extraction and warm second extraction of the same biomass?
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Yessir. First pass 1:1 panda that shit. Pile up the bags Then second pass 10:1
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I’ve been resisting the idea of doing a second wash, but that does sound like an excellent way to get the best of both without much more time investment. Besides, there’s plenty of uses for distillate that’s less than pristine if you don’t want to deal with color remediation on a warm extraction. It almost makes me sad to see beautiful disty just get thrown into edibles and topicals.
The first pass small batches done fast. Then the second doesn’t take long at all and uses less. You can fix the color good enough on the second pass room temp can mean comes out of a freezer and warms they the day also
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Then are some pretty’s- care to elaborate on what you have going on there?
Thank you for the warning. Yeah, that’s why I’ve been hesitant of using hexane. I’m actually back to using cold temps for the extractions again, lol. Haven’t been able to do the saturation tests yet. It hasn’t been in the cards. Hopefully gonna be able to within the next months or so. Still only using etho. Staying as safe as I can.
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I’m doing a second wash on all my runs now, definitely worth it on my opinion.
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It’s only a 2 minute one aswell, turns out greener than the hulk but you def squeeze the last bit out of it by doing so.
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I’m a little gun-shy about pulling chlorophyll after learning the hard way how much of a royal pain in the ass it is to clean it from glass, but then again, that was from a 3-day soak in room temp ethanol. 2 minutes doesn’t sound bad. I believe you that it’s worth it though. I’ll be sure to try it on my next run, thanks for the tip!
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I have had good results extracting chlorofyl from crude with @Beaker sop
Of iso /water boil and run over alumina
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