Usually either untrimmed buds or trim. Between 1,500g - 2,500g per sock.
Blasting 8 socks per day.
Notice a difference in efficiency between 1.5 & 2.5kg?
Suggests more solvent…
No?
Suggests otherwise.
Aiming at 80-85% seems reasonable. attempts to get more out of every bag need to be balanced against total throughput.
Which is where showing the boss how much that third soak on 6 bags yields vs running two more bags in a shift comes in.
3 Likes
The density of the pack won’t mean as much for the trim since there is still a majority of the surface area exposed. But that is a large difference in sock weight.
We haven’t noticed a direct difference, mostly because each sock differs drastically in weight. One 1,500g sock might be loaded into the same run as a 2,500g sock.
I hear ya. Weight definitely differs quite a bit sock to sock. I’m curious if packing each sock as close to the same weight as possible would make a difference, doubt it though.
If you’re going for 100% extraction efficiency then you’re going to have to sacrifice some quality.
I’d start with increasing temp to -20 on the solvent for your final pass. Warmer solvent will pick up more noids. Obviously you’ll get a little lower quality but you can save that first pass for the top shelf.
5 Likes
We somewhat tried this. Since our main focus atm is producing crude for distillation, we increased our injection temp from -60 to -45ish last month and noticed an increase in yield, still searching to improve efficiency or cannabinoid recovery.
1 Like
Welcome! You have some really experienced extractors chiming in here. You’ll get some good advice. Where are you located?
Hello! I’m aware! I’ve received much insight from @cyclopath before on other topics.
We are operating in Eastern Pennsylvania.
2 Likes
He’ll keep your Didgeridoos from your Didgeridon’ts.
5 Likes
I used to be in Pittsburgh working for PurePenn/Trulieve
2 Likes
i would try flushing with a large amount of solvent after your first soak. run solvent over your material until it runs clear or at least very very pale.
-60C is super cold, great for quality extracts, awful for efficiencies. Additionally, higher propane blends tend to preferably extract terpenes over cannabinoids.
If you still want quality products AND good yields, do what someone above me said.
1st wash -60C soak, send to recovery pot # 1 (high quality fraction)
2nd wash -20C soak, send to recovery pot # 2 (low quality fraction)
That way the majority of your stuff is still primo, and your efficiencies are higher due to warmer soak. But that second fraction is probably not gonna be dabbable quality extract, so send er to infused prerolls or distillate.
5 Likes
How much solvent are you running through the biomass?
Chasing that last 10% of available cannabinoids in a static extraction requires a lot more work and just pulls a lot of undesirable compounds with it, at-least in my experience.
Anytime you change the input parameters for quality, you’re leaving cannabinoids behind. However always trying to improve your process is critical for progress.
8 Likes
Roughly 40lbs of solvent per sock
Excellent points have been made above. As well as in other threads on this very topic.
Thats a small solvent:bio ratio, especially running -60C. Not impossible, but makes it even more important to optimize the operation to achieve acceptable yields.
Adding to what EngineerZach said re: chasing last 10% and static extraction (soak)
-Solvent contact time with bio/flow rate is an important variable to control for optimizing extraction efficiency.
Soaks can be helpful here mainly to ensure the bio in column is saturated with solvent.
If Im doing a soak, I personally prefer to follow it with a flush.
No matter what style of extraction Im doing with C4/canna, I always throttle down the solvent flow rate for the last column volume of solvent. The lower flow rate helps extract the last bits of noids remaining by avoiding solvent saturation while also increasing mass transfer - both of which are much lower when comparing a soak with an equivalent mass of solvent.
As for temp: A topic of great debate! > at -60C the noids hardly wanna be in the solvent to begin with. -40C is plenty cold.
3 Likes
Do you notice a different pressure between the two columns? Or do you fill each column separately? You may be filling one column with more solvent than the other when the one with more material needs more solvent… if you can’t get similarly weighted socks, try to fill the columns separately
1 Like
Our now patented extraction method is the other hand when compared to the traditional system…
By cycling our solvent, we essentially have an unlimited amount of solvent available as the ratio is based on time in which the solvent is passed through the bio material. The volume per minute is based on the compressor you are using: the bigger the compressor - the larger the volume per minute (2-5lb, 5-10lb, 10-20lb, 20-35lb, 35-120lb, etc.) for as long as you want to cycle/extract for. It is like pulling solvent from your liquid tank constantly until the extraction is complete at maximum rate.
With our system, we would simply suggest a longer cycle time for your extraction so as to increase your solvent ratio. Warmer cycles will typically run faster and will definitely pull more impurities, while colder cycles will take longer and typically be cleaner.
Our smaller systems operate on 12-15lbs of solvent and our larger systems are either 65-75lb (Behemoth R600) or 120-150lb (Behemoth R800) for a typical day of processing.
Depends on the solvent… The longer the chain, the colder it needs to be for crashing. 
6 Likes
Lots of good comments already, just want to chime in on consistency. Sock weight should be as consistent as possible and the density of your pack can become a factor too (including material size). If you are running 1.5-2.5kg socks at random then it will be hard to run a consistent solvent ratio. Creating consistency in your process will help you better identify any issues and maximize your results.
I would say pack everything at 2kg and run a 8:1 solvent ratio at coldest temp you can. Then adjust from there. One thing that has made a difference for us is using a “flush” between soaks or on the final pass. To flush you send extra solvent through after the soak volume, at max velocity, to push the goodies out of the column.
2 Likes