I can try a shorter Line to maybe apply more of a gradual slope to the setup for sure.
Thanks man. Yours looks really clean itself. From the time we start pitching solvent to the time we kill our recovery and our ready to pour on 120lbs its an hour and a half give or take 5 mins.
Passive recovery really changed the game in our overall production. We almost instantly doubled from using cmep pumps and 2 MVP pumps.
We run 1/2” currently on our recovery setup. You think jumping up to 1” would be better?
go 1.5 and add a shelltube above your first evaporator
I have hard pipe 1.5 going to manifold for each pump to 3/8 for ea of 4 trs21.
2 pumps for ea 3/8 line.
Iv herd 3/8 coil cools better than a half ?
Depends on pump.
I think slope is key . my vertical 1.5in to seive only adds up to around 24in. But u do need enough rise to be more than what possible burbs over
We have a 3/8 coil on right now and it works just fine for the cooling but we get hit with massive clogging on the daily. We’ve tossed the idea around of running 2 1/2 coils to compensate for the cooling loss.
Would the size of the port on the reactor cap that feeds the valve, which runs to 1 1/2” and 1 3/8” line up to the sieve be a problem. We would love to go to 1.5” but i think we would have to find a custom cap that would fit both 1.5 and a sight glass. Not sure if they carry stuff like that at HFS or Xtractor depot.
Would it matter if the 1.5 inch gets added to the valve ports on the reactor? I know those stem holes in the cap are like 1/4”-3/8”
I found moisture in my coil settling from overnite causdd the clogging for me. So now i run some butane straight to collection before i icr down and no more issues?
It has to do with the velocity of the solvent being recovered.
Lower the velocity of the gas moving thru your mol-seive by making the them a larger diameter. Looks like you have 3in molsives or smaller. Replace those with a 6in jacketed column and I bet you don’t have the problem anymore.
I’ve heard of people heating their sieve as well. Is that what the jacketed could be used for?
We’ve had an ice build up once or twice awhile back but it was from a valve that wasn’t tightened correctly. Once we fixed that it hasn’t been ice as much as it has been wax
Exactly what the jacket is used for.
if your molseive is icing up your definitely getting liquid in it which is real bad.
do you have a dip tube on the INLET to your collection?
if you’re dropping liquid into your collection at the same time you’re trying to suck gas out, you are entraining droplets of hash.
adding a 12" extension to the inlet on my 2015 PX1 solved hashed mol-sieves just as it did when I realized why this was happening on my Mk III terpenator.
the Luna I’m currently running could benefit from a similar extension.
@Graywolf can probably point you at the MK III design to show you what I mean.
When I had my (second) Mk III built, I used the same length dip tube on a 12" collection as had come with the 6" collection MK III the boss purchased.
that was wrong.
it took me a couple of years to actually understand and solve.
the tip from @Photon_noir is about slowing the velocity of the vapor, changing direction (by at least 90°, 180° is better), and giving the droplets something to collide with. which is the same concept as Liquid separator instead of molecular sieve
that just purges the hash in there faster…doesn’t solve getting hash in there in the first place.
I’m going to bank on your recovery temp being set at 180 being the issue, that’s beyond unnecessary, and would likely co distill alot over with your gas, then the co distilled product condenses once it gets to a cooler area of your equipment, like mol sieves, hoses, valves, etc.
Larger vapor path, and some form of capable heat exchanger to take the heat load from recovery, will speed you up and eliminate your issue entirely once you lower the heat, ive had wax codistill at 90f
Jacket temp does not == puddle temp for the majority of “recovery”…
least that’s what sticking this up your pour spout will show
I agree, but as it boils and foams up, that foam at the top likely gets heated more than the bulk boiling puddle down below.
Codistilling doesn’t seem to care as much about temperature as it does the driving energy.
if it takes 180f to distill the gas, there is an enormous bottleneck in the recovery somewhere because at those temps butane wants to be a gas, and if it has somewhere free to go, it will go there rapidly, if that path is constricted it will just build pressure and that will warm the gas because it slows the boiling and allows more heat transfer to the liquid which also increases codistillation.
Again I have seen wax distill over at 90f.
I’ll hook up my thermo to the top of my honeypot and recover till the foam hits it to get a reading, that I haven’t done.
This article includes the Mk III dip tube design.
Codistilling cannabinoids at 0-15psi, even if some portion of the solution was reaching 180°F doesn’t sound realistic to me. Not to mention if the solution was actually reaching those temps there would be some amount of decarboxylation occurring. Now codistilling a large range of terpenes on the other hand, and towards the end the risk of simply distilling them off almost entirely does sound realistic.
Liquid entrainment does make sense though if they aren’t still bumping occasionally. I like the idea of the diptube depositor in the collection as a decent method of reducing it, plus as has been mentioned there are a variety of ways you could setup an entrainment separator in your recovery path.
Definitely need to reduce the velocity of your vapor stream one way or the other at least long enough to drop the mist. Also, you might consider setting up a condenser designed to either drop your terps back in your pot or to collect them in a secondary vessel.
Correct! A boiling liquid will always be at its boiling (temperature) point for the surrounding pressure. The boiling point of butane (at 1 atmosphere of pressure) is 31.1°F… i.e. just below the freezing point of water. The BHO solutions of resin & butane in your collection tank have only slightly higher boiling points, which increase as the concentration of resin increases (as butane evaporates). However, it is not until the very last of the butane that the boiling point increases more than a couple degrees, so you can assume the boiling point in your collection vessel is essentially always just under 32°F…
Actually it will be colder if your recovery pump pulls vacuum faster than the butane boils (negative pressure on the gauge). Likewise, it will be slightly warmer if pressure builds up in the vessel (positive pressure on the gauge), and this is most often the case since recovery pumps are almost NEVER faster than butane evaporation… yet another argument for passive recovery, as long as you have the chilling power!
So you might be wondering, “Why would anyone ever heat their collection pot more than room temperature?”
Well, the answer is in the definition of “temperature”. It is a measure of the average rate of random motions (kinetic energy) of atoms and molecules… a quantity which determines the direction and degree of the flow of heat energy between two contacting thermal bodies.
The molecules of butane take the heat energy with them as they leave in the form of vapor. Since the evaporation of butane removes heat, that heat must be pumped back into the remaining liquid butane so that it, too, can gather enough energy to vaporize… otherwise the liquid would cool until it stopped boiling.
The hotter the jacket around the vessel of butane, the steeper the gradient of thermal flux, the faster heat is pumped into the butane, so the faster the molecules can fly away as vapor… but the liquid STILL remains at its boiling point as long as it is able to boil!
