We’ve been looking into the membrane game and wanted to get some opinions.
I’m looking at 2 identical systems from Ethos with 1 housing (50gal/hour) per system to start.
One of the systems will the classic setup from Ethos for solvent recovery, pretty simple.
For the other one, we plan on buying Evonik membranes and installing it in the Ethos system to target fats and stuff.
Not sure which membrane we’re going to use from Evonik, but they said to use Puramem.
Any of you have inputs on which membrane gave the best results with ethanol?
And for those of you that are already running these bad boys, what’s your thought on it?
Hello Fluffy,
We are building systems and our experience so far (using a two stage Evonik membrane) is different that what we are hearing here. 1st stage is for removing the fats, waxes and lipids, second stage is for separating the solvent. Thanks Greg, gregh@heyesfilters.com 310-212-7777
I enjoy your effort
Yet I doubt that 1 membrane is sufficient for winterizing all fats and waxes a paper I posted in the data dump can show you the several types of fats waxes and lipids we are dealing with a some research will tell you that the molecular sizes are so much apart that a full winterization with one membrane seems hardly possible
It all depends on your process and desired end product.
If you just need a mild cleanup of some fat and wax, it’ll probably be a worthwhile endeavour. It will probably remove 50-60% of undesireables provided you’ve decarbed beforehand. So if that’s good enough for you, then it’s good enough
But like @Roguelab said. It won’t do anywhere near a complete job. If you need a fully dewaxed end product, these membranes probably aren’t the right choice. But if you can get by a 60-70% cannabinoid crude. Then it might be the right thing.
With the price they’re charging, I’m not sure the performance justifies it. If you could get a cheap membrane with similar performance, then sure. I haven’t identified one yet though.
Also you can’t evaluate a membrane without caveats on what solvent it was used in. A membrane, even if it’s compatible with both hexane and ethanol might be totally effective for dewaxing in one and not effective at all in the other. Solvent choice effects the conformation of both the membrane and the solute molecules themselves
Membrane based solvent recovery i demoed for @cyclopath@akoyeh@Photon_noir last week. The membrane rejected like 99.99% of cannabinoids/terpenes and only returned very pure ethanol. Actually better separation than I’ve seen on a lot of evaporator setups.
Even without the system being completely optimized, I was impressed! The permeate was impeccable. I’m really excited to see this tek being perfected by @MagisterChemist continue to progress. The unit seems to have great throughput capacity for what appears to be relative low CAPX and OPEX, as far as I can tell. Even if it only ran at 50% of potential power (as we saw it being run), I see it as a worthwhile investment. Oh that I had a lab to implement it right now.
I know that @cyclopath, @Photon_noir, and I did not take pictures or video, but I’m sure there will be some released soon. I eagerly await them myself. Pretty awesome piece of equipment that I only see getting better with time. Super customizable as well!
how much do the membranes cost? and who is making the best ones? I had been hearing about fouling problems in the past also wondering how that was overcome.
