Big tank with a mixer in it and a screen in the bottom is basically how I operate it.
I came into work this morning to find my ethanol at about -22c. Obviously I want it at -40c or lower but my chiller didn’t achieve that. I decided to go ahead and extract anyway because I’ve got a lot of weight to get through and it seemed to me like continuing, even at a warmer than desired temperature, was the best move.
My understanding is that will essentially only effect my filtration times because at warmer temps the extraction pull more plant matter, forcing me to filter it back out.
Good choice or bad? Should I have just waited until my ethanol reached -40c?
Any and all input, as always is super appreciated.
-20c is gucci especially if your going to rechill post extraction and filter sub 5 microns. I would consider room temp warm extraction not -20c lol but yeah with room temp u will get more cannabinoids as well as waxes making your winterization step consume a few more filters
-20 is reasonable, if you’re running at that temp I recommend keeping your biomass frozen to reduce the temperature increase in your ethanol as it’s introduced to the product.
I keep reading that room temp is okay to do. If thats true I feel like I can save myself a lot of time waiting for this ethanol to get cold. Id be able to pump out a bunch of extractions then just winterize and filter later.
A great way to really look at the difference is as soon as you are finished extracting, take a small aliquot of the recent extract in a beaker, maybe a couple hundred milliliters and put it in the freezer over night. Then do the same with room temperature extraction and do the same with -40C extraction.
After these sit for 24 hours pull them all out and observe. You will be able to see differences in how much fat or waxes precipitate out and then you can do a self assessment on your plant material and parameters which temperature seems to be the most sensible to operate at for your needs.
Even at -20c i throw it in the freezer over night to be filtered the next day. So i would do some comparisons on your end and see what works best for your process flow.
With a small/medium chest freezer u can probably do 10-15 Gal with a walk-in and conical you can do like 300 Gal
If you are chilling the solution after extraction, you can really extract at whatever temp you want… even room temp is fine.
It is just going to call for multiple or longer filtering process(es).
i.e. freeze, filter, freeze again, filter again, and so on.
People only like to extract as cold as possible just as a way to forego the winterization/filtration processes, really. If you don’t pick up those undersirables in the first place, you don’t need to filter them out later.
But if that’s not an option, extracting at -20 and then freezing will work just fine.
Fats/waxes/sugars/chlorophyll/other water solubles… sure. You’ll get more of those, and they do come from the plant, but calling any of them “plant matter” is broscience plain and simple…
I have no idea how “Plant matter” became synonymous with “not cannabinoids”, but it should really only apply to physical chunks of plant…and while those can be filtered, their abundance has absolutely nothing to do with extraction temperature
You can drop the fats (and then filter them) by getting your solvent cold. Wouldn’t call that “filtering plant matter”. (It was in solution when you started…).
The green requires absorption rather than filtration imo, although technically with the right filters it can be removed (chlorophyll is huge compared to cannabinoids). Sugars might also stick to the magic dirt (absorption again).
removing the “plant matter” is absolutely important. if you can filter it out without manipulating your solvent/extract, then it qualifies as “particulates”. Or “finely ground plant matter”. the other undesirables are in solution. you can precipitate them by manipulating the saturation level (evaporating solvent) and/or changing the temperature.
until we get to “nano-filtration”, at which point, if you’re filtering out photosynthetic antenna complexes, I’ll give you “plant matter” again.
bare chlorophyll is actually less than 3x the MW of our favorite cannabinoid, so separating those two by “filtration” requires something along the lines of the membrane defatting and desolventing solutions posted here: X-Spiral: Affordable Membrane Systems for the People!
Large amounts of product plus its CBD? Warm Etoh extract. Send through a chilled holding tank then impregnated lenticular filters and you should be all good. It’s what I see a lot of large scales do it
