Hey there
Haven’t really introduced myself yet so this might as well be an intro:
I have been a longtime lurker on this forum and it has been such an amazing resource for me- I finally decided to join GLG and start posting more cause we got the go ahead to build out a hemp extraction lab- we were issued the first industrial hemp processors liscense in the state of wisconsin last year but did very little in the way of actual extraction- background of company: We have been making herbal medicine for many years and I have worked in an apothecary and on an organic herb farm for as long as I can remember - my mother Elizabeth is the president of the analytical research chapter of the AHG and has been extracting, manufacturing, and formulating complex herbal medicinal compounds for 35 years, she is also my business partner at Luminary Medicine Co.
I am currently in the midst of putting together all of my equipment and as y’all will be seeing I am a very DIY/engineering type of guy so I opted to build most of my equipment myself instead of shelling out 10x the cost of materials that most of these manufacturers ask.
Follow me on Instagram @vene.ficium for daily story posts but here is the beginning of my glycol chiller to power the labs condensers:
I found a used 23000btu ac unit that was previously used to cool a barn that had been converted into a pottery studio, it runs off of a nema 6-50 230V outlet which conveniently matches the plug of my 20L solvent pro rotovap- both of these should be fine to run off of a single 50amp breaker, I’ll be using a Y adapter to run them both off of a single outlet.
Removing the fan and housing took a few hours and a lot of careful grinding and cutting and figuring as to how to remove bolts and screws without damaging the bent copper but it was fairly simple- the concept is straightforward- immerse the chilling radiator into a coolant and insulate everything well.
I Purchased a 35gal fuel tank from eBay but they’re widely available at tractor supply as well for similar prices, this will be the coolant reservoir - I am planning on cutting a hole in the top and welding in a steel spool that will act as a dry ice slurry reservoir Incase my heat load becomes too high when running multiple processes at once- this can also be used to prechill ethanol for cryo-extraction. A 24inx 8in spool holds approx 4.75gal of liquid
The tank measures 24x24” and will be held inside a wooden box that has 2in of foam insulation on all sides.
There is room to add a second and possibly even a third chilling unit to this to increase cooling capacity- I have a compressor and cooling system I can remove from a commercial fridge/freezer that I have converted into a sausage curing chamber that I am considering putting in to this unit as added power if needed.
Here are some pics from today, I’ll add more as they come.
