Ethanol-extracted crude with high water content

Hempire Building GMP
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Hey guys, I’ve searched the forum but haven’t found anything directly answering my question, but if this answer is out there already my apologies.

Our extraction partners have made a bunch of crude using ethanol extraction on hemp biomass that wasn’t properly dried. To make it worse, they do it in an open-air mixing tank that absorbs heat very quickly. The ethanol goes in at about -25C, and the ethanol-biomass mash leaves the mixer at probably 0C, so it’s warm enough to bring in a ton of contaminants. They recover most of the ethanol with a FFE and then reuse it without taking any steps to dry it first.

I distill the crude in a 20L glass boiling flask. Finishing a run with this crude is a challenge as there are so many contaminants the cold traps clog, usually before I really start distilling out the cannabinoids. That’s not the main thing I want to bring to your attention though… After the run when I pour the waste out of the flask, the flask is usually full of a hardened charred material, porous like lava rock or a sponge.

Taking all that into account, here’s my best guess as to what is happening. Since they reuse the ethanol from batch to batch without drying, and since they haven’t been able to properly dry their biomass, their ethanol is likely very wet (will get a hydrometer and confirm this). The wet ethanol combined with the warm extraction temps means they are extracting a lot of sugars and water-soluble proteins. The sugars are polymerizing inside the boiling flask and the proteins are denaturing, and at 220C+ are burning and filling the flask with “lava rock”.

My questions to you guys are:

  1. Does my assessment of what is happening make sense?
  2. Assuming all crude they’ve made this way isn’t runnable, is there a way to clean it up? (liquid-liquid?)
  3. Assuming their ethanol is wet, what is a good way to dry it? (They have probably 1000 gallons)
  4. Assuming they extract with 200 gallons of ethanol at a time, how might they implement an ongoing ethanol drying process?
  5. Assuming they decide to distill the ethanol to the water-ethanol azeotrope, is 95.6%/4.4% an acceptable proof for extraction, or does it need to be drier?

Thanks in advance for the input!

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You have too many things here that are issues and not enough specifics to analyze, and some of your assumptions are incorrect. I have a list of about 8 issues just after reading the method of extraction and have questions before I can give you answers. You are calling the ethanol “wet” , I assume what you mean is that you are worried about the water content diluting your ethanol correct? But you are recovering it correct? And the problems kinda increase from there it’s not just your alcohol content/water content but also your temps and there are a host of other issues likely like Ethanol Rancidity which many people don’t even know about. You are going to need to do some post processing for sure because of your process. PM me. I sent you my #

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Thanks, I will give you a call in a bit!

I’m aware there are a TON of issues with how the crude is being made… Trust me, nobody wishes the crude would be better more than I do. But you know what they say, you can lead a horse to water but can’t make him drink…

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Correct.

Correct.

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You can try holding it’s head under water :shushing_face:

Or offer it some of that 140 proof you’re extracting with.

Seems to me you have a reasonable handle on the problem and how to deal with it.

Yeah, those are sugars. Yeah, you need a proofing gauge. 190proof is about perfect. Unless you wanna use 120, but that’s an entirely different can of worms.

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You can fix this a few ways. Ultrafiltration will remove proteins and starches from solution. LLE into heptane will also effect a good general cleanup.

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Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!

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DM me for the best prices on more alcohol.

I’d say you are extracting to warm and removing too many water soluble components that are contaminating your product.

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