Does anyone know a company that stocks b80 or bentonite clay or t5 imbedded filter bags or lenticular carts?
Ertel alsops got them
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I think they only have carbon! Know anyone with b80/bentonite?
Thanks
They just released a t5 version
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Epic! Thanks
@Killa12345
I think he stocks powders
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Thanks but i ment does anyone know of media ombedded cartridge of bag filter companies
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Yup
@Killa12345
Or
@Filterman9
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Sorry for the late chime in on this thread!
Yes, ErtelAlsop and Carbon Chemistry have engineered a lenticular filter cartridge impregnated with T5 . It is now available through ErtelAlsop’s webstore in 12 inch lenticulars with flat gasket (DOE) or double O-ring endcaps.
You can find our lenticulars impregnated with diatomaceous earth and activated carbon on the webstore, and all information regarding filtration equipment on the general ertelalsop.com website.
-Dave
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Very late to the party but hoping that you are still out there rockin it in the cannabis world!
I currently have a PIG filtration system and I am looking to try to upgrade the process in someway. My entire process break down is as follows looking for any pointers or insight into what I could better.
- Wash bulk sugar trim in a CUP15 with 200proof at around -30F to -40F typically running between 9 to 11 kegs per run with two bags per keg. In the end washing about 70,000g into 165gallons all together, which splits into eleven kegs 15gallon each.
- Kegs then sit in 10F freezer overnight or pending days of the week over the weekend.
- We set up our PIG filter with two 25micron papers. We then make a slurry of ethanol and around 10g of powdered carbon to prime the pig before starting the solution. The carbon coats the papers rather than mixing it directly into the solution. We run each keg through twice.
- We break down fully clean machine and reset it up with 3-micron papers and rip the solution through twice again. In between each keg we are bringing them back and worth through to a freezer that is 10 -20f to try and keep the solution on the colder side.
- Break down clean and set up stage three which is two 3 micron filters with .5 fiberglass micron in the middle like a sandwich. We also put each keg through twice.
- We then run all the kegs on an FFE 45.
- Decarb is on hot plates under a vent we try to run them for around 3-4 hours once they get to at least 230F trying to get it closer to 245F without going to much higher than 250F. Make sure once it reaches at least 230F it goes for at least four hours to fully decarb.
- After decarb it goes into our helderpad for two passes.
We try to use as little amount of charcoal as possible when filtering while still getting the color change we want. I am getting within the 90% range for bulk distillate after two passes on a helderpad. But I am just looking to refine the filtering process if anyone has any tips
A couple things to note from what you said:
You are extracting cold, which does a good job of avoiding picking up fats and waxes, as well as too much pigment. Your initial extraction is definitely pulling along some kief/fine plant matter that will sit in the kegs with your tincture until it is filtered. You are keeping it a bit cold, but the long contact time between your ethanol and the kief in your kegs is not ideal. Undesirable pigments/fats and sugars will make their way into your extract. The fats will not cause too many problems, since you have already separated out most of the biomass, but I do find that you will pull more sugars into your extract if you do not separate the biomass and ethanol quickly (maybe within 20 minutes). These sugars will concentrate as you remove ethanol, and then as you remove other components of your crude as you distill/decarb. You may have noticed a crusty residue on the bottom of your decarb containers, or powdery/particulate residue in the feed tank for your wiped film, or coming out of your discharge pumps. This can be pretty material dependent too, but is good to watch out for.
To fix this, you will want to filter immediately after extraction. As your extract tincture comes out of the cup 15, you will want to filter it through your 25 micron filter before it goes into storage over night or over the weekend. Do it about as quickly as you can. This way 99% of the kief is removed, and you don’t have to worry about undesirables extracting from the kief. Then you can Chill and filter using carbon how you normally do, since adsorption (which is how carbon scrubbing works) works better at lower temperatures, I think storing your stage 1 filtered kegs in a freezer is fine. Doing this will eliminate a significant amount of sugars/solid particulate residue from your extract. this will save you money in the long term on your FFE 45 and helderpan (wiped film evaporator) as the sugars can jam up outlet/inlet pumps.
Once your ethanol is recovered, your decarb process is acceptable but can be improved depending on your budget. First, make sure you are using a thermometer to check the temperature, dont rely on the temperature the hot plate is reading (unless the hotplate uses a probe in the crude to check temperature). I normally go up to 130C or 266F, constantly heating along the way. I would also highly recommend using an overhead stirrer and not a stirbar. Much faster vigorous stirring will keep your decarb bubbles under control, while also encouraging more volatile gases to boil out of your crude. I know my decarb is done by the reduction in bubbles, and the appearance of a faint white smoke emanating from the oil, which I assume are some terpenes boiling off. Once I turn the stirrer and heat off, I like to see the oil reach a point where no more bubbles or foam are being produced, and the top of the crude is like a clear black mirror. Further upgrades to your decarb process can be achieved by decarbing under vacuum (in a reactor) which will further help encourage volatile components to boil off, but is not a requirement. If you do all of this process in the time period you outlined, you shouldnt see significant CBN creation.
Im sure your distillation parameters could be adjusted to either produce more distillate or higher potency, but you are in a good potency range and unless you are seeing poor yields from decarbed crude–>distillate, I would focus on the filtration first.
It seems like this will come down to how quickly you can filter your freshly extracted tincture, and if that matches the speed with which you extract. If you can filter more, and faster, great, if not, then this is your bottle neck. I would try that out first and then if that is the bottle neck, there are a couple things you can do to try to speed things up.
Let me know if you have more questions, others may chime in too.
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Bro 
- Don’t use carbon, why are you using carbon? If it’s absolutely necessary there are ways to include carbon in your process without adding powdered activated carbon.
- Kegs are an insanely inefficient method for handling and transferring solvent. Get rid of the kegs and opt for the appropriate bulk solvent and miscella handling
- You should be able to filter a run from a CUP-15 in 60 seconds with the right pump and filter setup. Spoiler: a PIG filter is a waste of time and money.
- For the reasons set forth in number 3, there’s no need to freeze these at 10C overnight, you’re already extracting at -30 to -40C. Again a miscella holding tank is great. And you can top up and run your FFE45 simultaneously.
I’d venture to say your process is running at 25-50% maximum potential efficiency and you are truly reducing your revenue generating capacity into a black hole
If you want to fix it, I’m happy to work with you on a consulting basis
The info above has the answers you need, some more vague than others
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Anyone tried turning chlorophyll into phytol and chlorophyllin via alkaline hydrolysis after winterization in etoh?
Seems like my heads fraction quadrupled…
I think there were some posts about this somewhere on the form, but might be wrong…
You should be able to use a strip of 10um polypropylene felt to line the basket, and do most of your filtration on the way out of the CUP.
Then all you’re looking at is whatever your bag packing crew left on the outside of the bag.
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Well said, totally agree. Although, unfortunately, I’ve never tried this.
I have used that technique, it works good. And as a side benefit, it also keeps everything contained if a bag tears.
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Thank you all for the insight and tips it is truly appreciated!!
I do not currently have the ability to implement any machine changes like getting more cost-effective vessels for the tincture or getting a better filtration system than the PIG. Hopefully one day that will change and I will be able to afford some consulting help.
With that being said, I am going to try and implement a strip of 10um polypropylene felt within CUP and see if I can get filtration done in the same day as washing. I know that some people don’t agree with the use of charcoal because it can make things harder down the line. But I have found that it is the cheapest and easiest way to get a lighter color on the tincture with the set up that I have. I am open to other suggestions on what I could use to replace the charcoal within the same process.
My decarb process is archaic, and I hope one day I will get be able to purchase something to decarb under vac since I know that is the way to get the best results but right now, I’m just working with what I got. I do use a heat gun to check the oil temp and don’t just base it off the plate. My decarded crude is pretty decent, I have gotten results in the low 80% for THC before any passes on the helderpad. I ensure it looks just like @G_Boe said with no bubbles clear black glass.
My helderpad parameters could use some tweaking but I’m going to work on getting filtration dialed in better then see where that lands. Most of my percentages for disty are good almost always 90%+ THC with the TAC in the mid 90s. I also am fully aware that the labs in my state are wack AF so some of percentages could be higher or lower pending which lab we use. I do want to try and get better yields off the helderpad if possible, right now typically getting around 70% yield average from crude to disty on two passes.
@Cyclopath how often do you change the polypropylene felt that you line the basket with? I am washing around 200lbs a week and am wondering how long it will last. I have not heard of someone lining the inside of the basket with anything before.
Thank you again for all your suggestions!
You might be surprised how inexpensive and effective a sock filter can be for removing the bulk of leftover biomass from your tincture as it comes out of the centrifuge. Definitely worth it, as you should be able to implement something for a couple grand or less to get going.
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Gonna depend how you use it. Spray washing vs trying to achieve agitation by reversing direction intermittently.
I don’t actually have data because I was ONLY using a ring of felt, and vacuuming the spent biomass out (and hence the felt) every time. I was also loading directly into a spinning rotor, and was definitely missing often enough that I really do mean that should up above.
The way to tell your bags/liner need cleaned is to track the weight of your biomass. Set a cut off for how much solvent you loose, and call that your service time.
You should probably visit It washes the cannabis and then it washes the cannabis some more
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I seem to recall that I was going through a bag every 200 kg or thereabouts, but that’s going to be very biomass/grind/system dependent.
We used to watch from above while it was spin drying after the slurry load. When the liquid starts seeping through the top of the bag instead of mostly buggering off through the sides, the sides are blind and need replacing.
We’d also see a slight increase in post-extraction mass, but it was pretty minimal. Of course, we were also spinning at something like 2800 rpm for a good length of time. (don’t try this at home, kids.)
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