Hi all, I’m curious to hear how others setup their post-processing labs for hydrocarbon extractions. I’ve got a C1D1 room for the actual extraction skid but I wanted to hear how others deal with the gases produced by the purging processes.
I just found out that the exhaust in our post-processing room recirculates into the air handler, we don’t have a real vent that goes to the outside atmosphere.
I’m wondering, does anyone knows what % solvent is left in their oil before it goes into a vacuum oven? I know that widely varies based on what type of consistency people are making, right now I’d probably have to pour off my material with very little solvent in it until I can get my ventilation properly setup.
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Fireman Dan likes your hash to be below 10% LEL before it leaves your C1D1.
Your vacuum pumps clearing your ovens should be manifolded with their exhaust going outside.
Other than that it shouldn’t matter.
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Thanks for the reply, that’s what I figured. Doesn’t seem like whoever setup the equipment in there had ventilation in mind. The facility doesn’t have an exhaust that goes outside from that room so I don’t think I can proceed until that gets fixed.
What’s about the volume of extract you expect to bring into that room ?
Except for ventilation one of my golden rules befor I start is to figure out the size of the room I am working in
Knowing the volume of the room I can calculate what amount of solvent has to evaporate for the explosion limits be met ventilation is crucial but knowing just about when your getting into serious trouble is nice to know beforehand remember that many solvents sink to the floor so with no ventilation it s gona fill it up quick
Whith good ventilation it s still a good habit to have an approx knowlidge of how much liquid solvent can get you in trouble
Had a oven Pyrex slip out of my hands one time and the spill was big but so was the room so I felt confident I should be ok in a small room I would have been Elvis
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I designed my small lab to have 2000-3000 cfm of fresh air moving through it 24/7. The air comes from fresh air facility intake fans and goes out the c1d1 exhaust, of course going through the lab before c1d1. I even interlocked all electrical circuits in the lab with the amperage of the fans. Filters plug, airlow drops, amps drop, power in lab shuts off.
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The volume of the post-processing room is approximately 4000 cubic feet, probably closer to 4500 cubic feet.
As far as the volume of extract I expect to bring into that room, I’ve got a Luna tech IO Extractor. I don’t know the exact throughput yet, as I’ve only done a 5lb dry material test run last week. For the test run, the oil came out of the extractor pretty dry. I ran it through a Speedmixer for a quick purge and only managed to off gas about 30g of solvent (normally I’d expect to pour off more wet). The resulting oil is pretty much solid at room temperature. I myself didn’t experience any reactions to the off gassing solvent but my 2 technicians both had reactions and left the room.
I expect to extract 25-50 lbs dry biomass per day while I get acclimated to the workflow, but in the future that will be greater as I ramp things up. I’m planning to bring in someone who has a gas detection meter this week to test the levels of gas in the air during that Speed mixer purge.
That’s really great airflow, I wish I had taken part in the lab design so I could have avoided this headache in the first place. I’m working with my facilities HVAC guy to try and tap into an exhaust vent that would release to the atmosphere.
The post-processing room is right next to the C1D1 enclosure so I may try to tap into that existing ventilation if possible.
Your vacuum pump blows on the exhaust side….and thus provides the motivation needed to get it gone.
We use 1” copper pipe to plumb all our vac pump exhaust to the outside whirled.
yes, CO2 tank was then attached to wall. Although we have a corken in there atm.
corken on the luna? the io or big one?
Nice setup, is your post-processing area in the C1D1 extraction booth? That seems like a sure-fire way to make sure everything is properly ventilated and safe.
Good idea to plumb the vacuum pump exhaust right to where you need it to go!
No, our post processing happens outside of the c1d1, however we ALWAYS leave pans in the c1d1 overnight to off gas to a safe level.
The miners with more solvent do stay in the c1d1 though.
However every vacuum pump that pumps volatiles should be routed outside the building.
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nah, that was just the only picture I could find of our vacuum setup on my phone…probably sent to the team to indicate we were back online after a pump swap. that’s the rated pump used to vac down the extractor.
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Got it, I couldn’t tell from the picture whether that was the C1D1 or post-processing. Good to know about leaving pans in the C1D1 overnight, is that uncovered for the gas to escape, or with saran wrap to keep out contaminants?
Understood regarding the vacuum pumps, seems that our facility massively overlooked those details when things were built out. Can’t say I’m surprised though since the facility I work in wasn’t built from the ground up for cultivation and or product manufacturing.
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Yes, we cover them and then put them in a covered food cart.
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Cool, I wasn’t sure whether solvent would pass through the saran wrap to off gas or if you just cracked the seal the following day in the C1D1 room. Sorry for the basic questions, I don’t intend to just be spoon fed through this process. I think I need to join GLG and make some contacts here in MA so I can see in-person how others setup their labs. I really appreciate your willingness to help.
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I’m happy to help, the sararn wrap, i highly recommend using the slightly more expensive press and seal for a good seal, the gas pressure will cause the wrap to bulge and then it will eventually let go and slowly let off the gas.
Just an FYI, you should be able to do 60-100lbs a day without much sweat on the IO.
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The mvp is the vac on the io?
Mine had like an edwards type pump
Nope. It is sitting NEXT to the vacuum pump
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