Basic Question here —
IF starting on a small scale just to get the hang of processing , how much crude in an
8 hour shift could you expect to get from one 20l Rotovap?
depends on what you feed it.
rotovaps remove solvent.
they don’t “make crude”.
how much cannabis you can get into a gal of solvent determines how much crude you get when you remove the solvent. that depends on the temperature you extract at. at -40C you can get at least 3lb into a gal if you know what you’re doing. at rm temp you might be able to get 10lb in there.
what are your plans?
do you have a centrifuge?
it’s getting quite long in the tooth at this point, but if you haven’t already read the Ethanol Extraction White Paper I’d start there.
the chiller that came with your rotovap also makes a huge difference in how fast you can run it. if you purchased a “turn key” system, chances are your vac pump AND chiller are under powered.
maybe check Optimizing your RotoVap
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Can’t say you’ll get the same results but I can tell you what I can do with our 20L roto. We can process about 40L of input in about 9 hours. This yields about 4-6L of crude. All of this will depend on your ratio of solvent to crude and the parameters you use on your roto.
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thanks @BioSlacker actual numbers from the field are always appreciated.
@NCProcessor it turns out having more resin in there slows the rate at which you can remove the solvent…a 5% tincture will recover faster than the 10-15% (oleoresin) @BioSlacker is loading with.
perhaps @Renchi has a number for the high end?
Well, I hacked everloving shit out of my 10l roto and did extensive time tests with different parameters to come to a point which suited my needs. This did sacrifice a lot of etho for speed though, so as the others have mentioned it all depends on what you are comfortable with. I never got around to doing the full 50lbs/5 gal because I already lost too much etho in the extraction process due to not having a closed loop system.
I have just switched to a new facility where I’m building a closed loop atm. So I can only give you my parameters for running the roto. First you need to add a new collection vessel (tri clamp keg or 20l ss 12" pot works) that you hose (keg can be connected directly to system by removing the rf and tri clamping straight to the keg). This is only needed if you don’t have a dual condenser with dual rfs, as they function the same way ie you can close one to drain off while running the other rf.
Your boiling flask should spin as fast as it can (130 rpm for mine) and depending on your chilling capacity you can run the water bath at 58.5c. That makes the etho dump out of my setup. But that also depends on what your end product is.
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