Hey Guys,
Im new to this industry so any help would be greatIy appreciated.
I am setting up a new lab. I already purchased a Lab Society 20L Short Path Kit and a 20L Ai RotoVaps. I’m hung up on what extractor I should purchase. What would help me maximize production withe two pieces I already have.
One more important thing. I’m working out of a garage so power is limited!
Thanks in Advance
Dry ice, some vessels, a filter, a centrifuge, a stir plate, some filter aid/media and you can start working. This is obviously a gross simplification but these are the starting blocks.
The best place to read up is:
[(Bucket Tek (Cold Ethanol Extraction on a Budget) - #36 by cyclopath)
You can DM me if you want and we can chat offline.
Thank You Jay-TL, I’ll be reaching out to you soon.
What are you aiming to produce? Distillate only?
Hey ZizzleB. Yes just Distillate
I would go the path of having an ACE or CUP alcohol extractor, for time and efficiency.
Like Dred Pirate said, the CUP extractors are pretty dang efficient and would be a great unit to start with… Delta makes a great one that isn’t particularly cheap but is a great piece of equipment if its in the budget… Do you have a proposed budget for your extractor?
2 BIG issues with a CUP or Ace rocking out of your garage are a) how are you going to get enough ethanol to run it, last I checked most companies are no longer delivering large quantities to home addresses (I could be wrong though) and b) you will quickly dig yourself into a massive backlog of tincture which after a certain point becomes an issue because cannabis in ethanol starts to degrade over time. This means you will be spending a lot more on ethanol to always have enough to run. This also makes it much more dangerous having all that Ethanol just chilling in your garage 
Quick math:
If you run a CUP 15 at half capacity (~150lbs/8hr shift) (a very expensive investment to run at half capacity) you would need to be evaporating in the neighborhood of 50ish gallons of ethanol a day (depending on loss and reuse rate). With a single 20L roto running for 16hrs at max capacity you might be able to eek out 25 gallons (highly unlikely without modifications).
I don’t think a Delta or an Ace is your answer, you need something else. You need to design your setup around the 3 most pressing variables at play
Im responding to your DM shortly.
Yeah what that guy said. With a CUP, you are going to hit a bottleneck with your 20l roto
Recovery rate on your roto, is probably 10-12l hr
Doing the bucket gel I think the ratio is 5ml/g of biomass.
So in an 8 hr shift you could recover 24 gallons, and process 20-35 pounds.
Maybe look into a vacuum assisted still or multiple Rotovaps.
Also you can automate your rotovap to run continuously throughout the night.
Care to elaborate on modifying a rotovap to distill continuously? Got me pondering…