We received the potency analysis for the raffinate (our UPLC is not in a space we can operate it) and I calculated our extraction efficiency. I am taking this with a grain of salt because we couldn’t effectively weigh our raffinate due to moisture and inconsistent bag tare weight. Also the starting biomass was tested as “Flower”, but it was pretty shakey because it was what was left over after trimming/packaging - so I don’t think the results are like=like. Anyways, here are the results in a nutshell.
Run 1: Our starting biomass was tested at an average potency ~25% for a total of 1003.1g THC / 1179.7 TAC. Our raffinate tested at an average of ~5.5% for a total of 222.1g THC / 255.5g TAC. If I’m half as good at math as I think I am that means we extracted about 78% of the THC and 80% of the TAC.
Run 2: Our starting biomass tested at an average potency of 27% for a total of 751.5g THC / 883.9g TAC. Our raffinate tested at an average of 3.8% for a total of 128g THC / 144g TAC. This means we extracted 83% of THC and 84% of TAC.
Run 3: Was an outlier that we tested just to collect data. This run was at feeding ethanol at 1/3 the max pump speed, 5 minute recycle time, and 800rpm in the fuge. We knew it didn’t go well based on saturation, but we sent the samples off anyways. Starting biomass had an average potency of 25% for a total of 813.6g THC / 947.7g TAC. The raffinate had an average potency of 18.8% for a total of 732.4g THC / 806.6 TAC. This means we extracted 10% THC and 15% TAC.
In conclusion, I think my starting biomass results were a bit higher than what was actually in the material and it definitely does not pay off to run this process slower. Run 3 was immediately re-ran under adequate process parameters as we could tell the EtOH was not saturated.
We are waiting on our oil to come out of the rotovap so that we can test it and trace all of the THC (our ASE 100 is a POS). Once we have the oil results I will do a mass balance and see what we actually recovered. I hope this information helps somebody.