So we just did our first run using bucket tek and an air still. I’ve been all over this site for all the info and had a few questions regarding the process.
First, we’re curious how you’re able to keep the temps of the etoh at -50 when extracting say 25lbs of trim using bucket tek. The main question is how are you guys keeping it at -50 during the soak? and after you strain plant material, are you adding dry ice to the tincture that will be poured over the next bucket of trim? I’ve read that adding the dry ice to the tincture can create problems. Is this accurate? Is this the best way to keep fats and unwanted stuff out? Would it be easier to wash all 25lbs, and being left with ~5 gallons of tincture, freeze it overnight with dry ice in cooler and then filter the fats out the next day when they’ve separated?
Secondly, assuming you’re washing in 2lb increments, and each soak is 15 min, you’re looking at just over 3 hours in soak time. Would it be possible to soak in a 20 gallon trash can doing roughly 8lbs at a time? Planning on loading 4 net bags with 2lbs each so they fit in the panda, but be able to soak all 4 at once. Is this the best way to speed that up while keeping budget low?
Lastly, is there a certain consistency to look for in the crude to determine theres no etoh is still left? Feel like the air still really got most of the etoh out, but since we werent sure we tried to purge whatever remained in a hot water bath. it was at about 90 degrees C for a few hours and we didn’t see any evaporation happening really. Foamy like bubbles on top for a little bit, but they stopped after a couple hours and didn’t seem to lose any volume of crude. If boiling off remaining etoh into the atmosphere, is there a certain temp that works best? Does it need to be left on much longer than ~8 hours?
Thanks in advance to anyone who reaches out. If there are any threads that already answer some of these questions that I somehow haven’t seen, I would be grateful for the links!
