Questions About a Large Closed Loop System

Help Support and Requests
1

Hey guys,

I’m new here, I used the search bar to try and find similar posts about building multiple-column closed loops and wasn’t able to find someone with a similar issue/build as mine. I could also be really bad at searching so let me know if there’s some posts out there that can help me out.

I recently inherited a bunch of closed loop parts and was under the impression it was ready to run, but I am having issues attempting to set it up. The owner of it passed away and no one from the estate knows much about the system so I am on my own here.

Currently the system has:
8-10 columns jacketed and non jacketed ranging from 1lb to 5-6lb ( there are extras / not all columns are meant to be used at once )
10+ reducers for the columns listed above (6 to 4inch , 4 to 2 inch, etc)
1 large 5’ x 2’ horizontal recovery tank (don’t think it fits with any other parts or was even used with rest of system)
2 regular “honey pot” style collection tanks w/ sightglasses ( 1 is jacketed and 1 is not )
2 racks
1 remediation column {edit} This is actually a drier filter filled with dessecant pellets, not CRC.
1 manifold column ( it looks about 4inch column with four ball valve spouts coming out of it, not sure what the real term is for this part )
3 butane tanks, 2 of them are stainless steel with gaskets and lids ( I have only used the yellow/gray bottles with liquid and gas valves, never something this fancy.)

For clarification, I have used a single column CLS for about 4-5 years now, but have never used a manifold system (multiple columns to one collection tank) and am a bit confused at how these systems work differently than what I am used to.

If anyone has diagrams or a video of how to set up a system with multiple columns that would be amazing.

my main questions are these:

-Does the butane tank feed all the columns at once, or does it connect as a loop? (first column then into second, etc)

-What kind of recovery pump should I be looking at getting for a system this large? (looking at MVP-150 at the moment)

-All the butane tanks I have worked with needed to be welded in half and cleaned extensively every refill, how am I supposed to fill these stainless steel tanks? Do I need to clean them thoroughly myself and fill them with a supply tank?

Will try to post some pictures of the unit / all the pieces here within the next half hour I just need to upload them to my PC.

{ EDIT } here is a link to the photo album, thanks again you guys. https://imgur.com/a/nKI1yNa

Any advice given is a huge help, so thank you in advance for everything. Let me know if I am missing any needed info, looking forward to posting the results here sometime soon.

Cheers,
Aliienate

1 Like
2

That right there ^^^^^^^^scares me
Also doesn’t make sense… you mean you’ve CUT them in half and welded back together??? That’s a no no

4 Likes
3

was not done by me, I was told its common practice from the techs that we used to drop the bottles off at. I am in canada so its possible we have different regulations for butane? unsure honestly.

1 Like
4

Soak one tube at a time

4 Likes
5

cheers that makes things a bit easier for me to understand, it was confusing me when I tried to set it up with them all getting soaked at once. appreciate the input!

1 Like
6

Its basically a mix match of parts, use the bfe ( the horizontal collection) as your pass thru to the honey pots and use the manifold to control which tube is being filled/recovered. Set up properly it will run fast with 1 operator

3 Likes
7

Is that horizontal reactor jacketed? Usually in a system like this you would go from the material columns into the horizontal reactor and do the bulk of your recovery there then transfer to the honeypots so you can finish up and easily pour/spray. This lets you keep the system running non stop because you can start the next batch right when you transfer to the honeypot. BHOgart makes systems like this if you want to check their insta and website to give you an idea of how it gets setup.

You can vacuum down a reactor and add the butane to that then just recover like normal into the solvent tanks. This also lets you check how clean the gas is, it should distill with no residue. If you need to clean the solvent tank you can transfer to the horizontal and switch recovery lines to pump the vapors from solvent tank to the horizontal until its in vacuum then run a regular vacuum pump to evacuate any lingering vapor.

In a system like this it is best to get at least 2 recovery pumps. One stays on the horizontal most of the time doing the bulk of recovery and the second one swaps between recovering columns, honeypots, or the horizontal. If you have an MVP I would put it on the horizontal and grab a CMEP for the utility pump. The CMEPs are garbage and break down a lot but they are comparatively cheap and have decent speeds at low inlet pressure which will come in handy to quickly recover columns.

1 Like
8

Its basically a mix match of parts, use the bfe ( the horizontal collection) as your pass thru to the honey pots and use the manifold to control which tube is being filled/recovered. Set up properly it will run fast with 1 operator

beautiful thanks a lot man appreciate the input. I will definitely look into using the horizontal as a recovery, is that BFE too large for a system of this size? assuming its 5lb columns x 3? i assumed the BFE was for a 40lb or more CLS.

Cheers man been reading lots of your comments on similar threads and appreciate the help you give the community.

1 Like
9

Is that horizontal reactor jacketed?

yes it is!

holy shit thanks a lot that makes a ton of sense. I was starting to go crazy. i think it is missing a load of parts, all the top ports have no gaskets/pieces to make it air tight. I will look into grabbing some more bits for it.

This makes a lot of sense, I will definitely look into grabbing two recovery pumps.

thanks a lot for your detailed breakdown and letting me know about bhogart and their units.

appreciate it a lot!

Cheers

10

Bfe is just what bhogart called it, i would dump 4 tubes into mine and recover for a few and rhen shoot it into a honey pot and dump 4 more. With that manifold you can also add a honey pot that only distills gas so you can top off whenever you need to, as long as you have enough gas to fill 1-2 tubes your good to start. You can use the vac down valve on the manifold to do vapor pushes and isolate it feom everything else and then recover that column so you can go faster and loose less gas per day

2 Likes
11

OK beauty, so basically for this unit there are 3 columns that would fit on that BFE, I would run one at a time ( as someone else mentioned above ) into the BFE, once all three are done i can transfer the BFE contents to honey pot and keep redoing the cycle over and over?

So that is why there are two honey pots here then? that makes a bit more sense. I found a video of how to distill the butane, but they used an empty column instead of the honey pot, i assume the practice is very similar with just the honey pot.

Do you mind breaking that down a bit more? i assumed the manifold system here was supposed to connect to each column, I wasnt sure how it all connected though or why the remediation column was above the manifold. ( i would have thought that it goes through the remediation column before the honey pot…)

thanks again for your insight I appreciate it.

12

no. columns are generally racked separately.

check the “lets see your setup” thread for bhogarts

https://future4200.com/search?q=bhogart+topic%3A17714

edit: … and I recommend a site visit from someone who knows what they’re doing. where are you located?

3 Likes
13

Here ya go

1 Like
14

Kim

16109568261643942344602062231813
161095682616439423446020622318133072×4096 1.15 MB

3 Likes
15

I hate the 2 inch ball valves when mounting on bfe. Rack mount with top and bottom manifold is ideal

4 Likes
16

Cyclopath, You said it! Help me!
That’s what I do.

1 Like
17

cheers man thanks, will definitely dive into that post and check it out.

I am still a new user so they limit my posts for the day, had to wait to respond!
I am located in western canada.

I have gotten a ton of new info now so I should be good to go here this week to set it all up properly, we are looking to commission someone locally to help us pressure check and make sure we are under all regulations/guidelines. Plus, I am going to need a crash course on the new SOP for a unit like this, I used nitro push in my single column but its looking like I will need to use a vapor push to save time/effort.

I found this SOP from BHOgart and I feel like it has everything I need to know to get started.

loads of more reading to do and research before everything gets off the ground, so it will be a while before any of this comes to fruition.

I am learning more about blasting on this forum in the last 2 days than I have in the last few years!

thanks again for the recommendation, I see your comments on a lot of helpful threads so I appreciate what you do for the cannabis community.

Cheers!

1 Like
18

I actually found the PDF version a few hours before you commented! small world!!!

thanks a ton for taking the time to snag that picture for me though i really appreciate it. I have a pretty good understanding now on how everything fits together (i hope)

2 Likes
19

Mol sieve with beads goes on top of the manifold…ft on there gas goes to vapor pump, then tube and shell condenser and into recovery/solvent tank.

2 Likes