Does anyone have a way of pressurizing a dry ice and ethanol mixture?
I’ve used a double headed 2,000ML round bottom flask and attached a vacuum adapter to a 250ml fractional column and add dry ice to the cannabis ethanol mixture then cork it up and start a vacuum and regulate the pressure by hand using the cold trap as to not suck in any mixture into the pump. Has anyone tried this? Or is there a safer more effective way?
Does it make a difference to pressurize such a mixture or will periodically adding dry ice in an open flask with ethanol and cannabis in it work just as well?
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I’m not sure, tbh. I saw a video of the Ethos 4 extraction unit and noticed it loaded in freezing ethanol using a pump so I figured there must be some sort of pressure causing the cannabis to extract perhaps quicker as if it’s in a column being extracted by butane.
I’m just wondering if pressurizing an ethanol dry ice mixture is more effective at stripping the cannabis rather than dry ice and alcohol alone
My understanding is that ethanol makes an effective co-solvent for liquid or super-critical CO2 extraction. Both of which take place under pressure. This (presumably) makes the CO2 more effective at stripping cannabinoids. I’m not certain that it makes the ethanol more effective
Just sealing ethanol and dry ice in a soda bottle will generate pressure. I don’t recommend more than a tablespoon or two of dry ice. It should be enough to alert you to the dangers of dry ice and sealed containers.
In the video you’re trying to emulate, the only reason for pumping/pressurizing is to get the ethanol off the biomass in a timely fashion. Which is very important.
Which is why I use a centrifuge.
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Well I have everything set in place so that after I drop the dry ice into the mixture I immediately pressurize it with the vacuum at a slight vacuum and contently regulating the vacuum by hand with the cold trap handles. The pressure from the vacuum immediately pressurizes the dry ice and the mixture starts to climb up the column which is why I heavily regulate it by hand so nothing shoots into the cold trap. Nothing is “sealed” and the vacuum doesn’t get released until the dry ice gets dissolved.
I’m just wondering if the vacuum is causing more to be stripped from the buds or is it just unnecessary?
The vacuum does not “pressurize” anything.
You are regulating the pressure, in a fashion. And you are probably running below atmospheric.
You can suck, blow, or pump your solvent. It’s about access, volume, and residence time. “Pressure” is irrelevant unless you’re using ethanol as a co-solvent in a CO2 or CXE scenario.
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“Pressure” is irrelevant unless you’re using ethanol as a co-solvent in a CO2 or CXE scenario.
That’s all I needed to read. Ty.
Good question cause pressure is the other variable with solvation besides time agitation and temperature. Someone must have tried it. Should be easy to throw in a steel vessel with some pressure relief valves & let the dry ice sublimation generate its own pressure. But would it be worth all the trouble? Who tried it?