Has anyone dried ground biomass over a bed of recharged sillica beads? I can get my hands on a bucket of desiccant packets and it seems like a safe reusable desiccant for final drying before extraction hopefully without terp loss. It seems like magnesium chloride would also work but seems harder to handle.
Oven, vac oven, and dehydrator are also being considered but I’m concerned with the fines that may cause problems
Get some sieve beads, theyre cheap and recharge them in the regular oven
How much biomass are you drying, is air drying not sufficient?
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I’ve got about 50 lb of trim to do in bucket sized increments. Using an ethanol tek I was under the assumption bone dry would be preferred to minimize undesirable pickup.
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Hi,
Ahh ok! You are desiccating the already dry biomass prior to extraction. Buy some damp rid, it is already ready to go and relatively cheap and available at your local wally world or home improvement store.
watch out for water from condensation also.
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Thanks a for the suggestion! That seems like the best option for my scale, I plan on grinding the biomass, loading it loosley into my filter sock and suspending it over damp rid in a sealed container.
Grinding might be easier after dessication but I think it will introduce moisture from handling.
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Dont molecular sieves heat up significantly as they absorb water? It seems that induce terpene loss, but that might not necessarily be bad. I planned on drying in a 5 gallon bucket HDPE not sure how hot they get but might need a SS bucket. I guess with the proper vessel they would be ideal for drying as they can be regenerated.
You’re gonna need a lot of silicate beads if you do this. I do exactly what you’re talking about, except on a much smaller scale.
I do a qp at a time, and after my material is dry enough to snap a stem. I put the qp in a vac chamber with about a 1/2 cup or so of beads and pull vac. After a couple of hours, I open up the chamber, break the buds up and pull vac again. Let it sit overnight, and the next day it’s bone dry. No noticeable terp loss.
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They heat up fast when adsorbing a lot of h20 quickly, but with dry material I doubt you would see much heat if any at all.
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circulator. Up wholesale desiccant bead. You can also bake them dry each use.
I would fill a nylon pouch with beads and place it center mass in a full bucket. That would allow you to fill the bucket all the way and increase surface area/ minimize distance.
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Thanks everyone I appreciate all the input, because I have damp rid on hand just going to put my material in a nylon sock and suspend above a dish of damp rid inside a vac chamber. I plan to upgrade to a more reusable desiccant in the future.