Can you reuse the ethanol used in the winterization process? If so, how many times…or how can you tell when it needs to be disposed of?
Yes, if you have a rotovap sure if its the same material being winterized . However ethanol does attract water after a few uses . If your using it for biomass extraction its up to you . When switching biomass/crude accounts its good to use fresh solvent to avoid cross contamination of pesticides and cannabinoids.
You can setup a filter to reproof and clean your reclaim
Yes.
You should distill if you can (like pulling off your rotovap or falling film or whatever you are using).
@vortal mentions setting up a filter to reproof - you want it to be clean of nasty things and you want it to be dry. How dry is up to your process - you can check the proof using a hydrometer (cheap ones on amazon, or expensive ones, whatever you choose).
Clean of nasty things means - removing particulates, pesticides, micro-organisms, and any other impurities. This usually happens with some filtration during winterization. If you are not already doing a carbon filtration step to remove chemical baddies, you could consider adding that in. Microorganisms can live in ethanol - you can filter (0.5micron) most of them out or heat them or both.
You could do this indefinitely. You’ll need to add some back in occasionally, because you always lose some to the process (even really efficient processes have carryover, cleaning, etc.).
I dispose of mine or use it for cleaning/soaking things when its proof is below 180, when it is discolored and running it through filtration doesn’t help, if it tests positive for any contaminates (heavy metals/pesticides), or during normal routine pump out/maintenance of my skid. This happens like once every 6 months, and I do this just in case I’ve started building up an impurity that I’m not testing for or something like that.
3 Likes