Room Temperature Extraction with Membrane System. Thoughts?

We do it in line. We have a buffer tank, but the only thing we have to do is empty the centrifuge with the centrifugal drain every 4-5 hours and repacking filters with DE every 16 hours. We run 24/5 with 1-2 people running all of production. We do single pass recovery through the membrane and produce 15 GPH of solution room temp solution. It hits a buffer tank and by the time it hits the centrifuge, it’s below -40. We match the flow of extraction and winterization and recover on the ffe a little faster to give us time for a cleanout every 12 hours.

Extracting warm our membrane have lasted for 9 months and are still going

Foul recovery is more about design then anything

You need a high flow rate and a way to heat the solvent up, this is why we have a bypass so you can heat up your ethanol on the plate with a heater and really clean your membranes

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Also good to know (and I did expect that). I’ll have to run the math, but I think going through membranes slightly faster (the coarsest ones) is likely going to cost a lot less than the cost of the electricity, and I don’t really have much space for new chillers either. I know it isn’t a perfect solution, but for me its good enough!

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Have you thought about warm extraction with heptane?

My membranes can run hydrocarbons and warm extraction allows you to wet extract plant product out of the field allowing you to cut drying costs for farmers which allows you to charge more for tolling while making more money for the farmers too

I know ppl charging farmers 50% to dry there hemp

Imagine being able to cut that middle man out

Large scale, who wants to deal with drying?

You also don’t have to worry about water in your solvent which is a big factor with ethanol extraction

Does it produce 75%+ wax content with minimal solvent? It gets pretty viscous at that concentration? I’ve never seen a membrane concentrate wax like a centrifuge.

It is actually illegal to extract with hydrocarbons in Vermont. The law is meant to apply to propane/butane for safety, but we actually can’t use it. Maybe that will change, but it would also throw a wrench into my whole operation having to retool a lot of procedures.

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Yep, all while removing large colored particles that wreck your color. The proof is in the test above.

I’ll send some pics of the concentrated drums of fats I have next time I’m out at my extraction faculty

I’ll have a mini skid doing color remediation live on Bizzcon floor if you’d like to come see it

Technically heptane is c1d2 just like ethanol

Alot of jurisdiction don’t know this

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Its in the state hemp laws, not a fire safety thing, which shouldn’t be an issue if you have a C1D1 setup, even for a propane setup.

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Wow that sucks lol :laughing:

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I was designing a CBD plant to do 1000 lb/hr of biomass last year and looked hard at this. The membrane process, regardless of number of fouled membranes, would be far more economical than chiller electricity consumption at that scale, but at the time there were simply no systems to handle that volume.

It’s amazing tech.

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Technically, solvent type doesn’t classify the space. That’s a common misconception in the cannabis industry.

NF fire codes do

Flash and boiling point, ethanol hexane and heptane are in the same classification

Btw my skids are c1d1 peer reviewed by PSI

Yeah, welcome to Vermont

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That’s hard to believe. At that concentration, the membranes would be terribly slow, how do you keep 75% wax moving past a membrane without adding solvent?

Depends on your jurisdiction.

A competent code consultant is mandatory for doing things right and as cheaply as possible.

In some areas, you can get away with C1D2 with ethanol or heptane. In some areas, you’re going to be required to do C1D1.

With proper engineering designs and controls, it may be possible to reduce some or all of your area classification substantially.

D1 → D2, D2 → unclassified

Or, your AHJ could say “I don’t like it, make it Div 1 or you don’t get to run” and then your’re fucked.

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That is something I will let you try and figure out :wink: or maybe you’ll hear me talk about it at bizzcon

It’s simple

In a perfect system, the only classified areas should be inside the system, by drains, vents or filling areas, and where spent biomass can produce flammable vapors.

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So you’re saying you don’t need any solvent recovery after your membranes?

Where did I say anything of the sort?