@Shadownaught requested a quote yesterday myself!
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Okay, so I just realized I clearly know nothing about chemistry. The ethylene value doesn’t actually correlate to ethanol adsorbtion does it? So, how could someone estimate potential lost ethanol if drying with 3a?
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Speaking as a long time alcohol distiller; zeolites, and even breaking azeotropes, are kind of a bitch. Unless you’re in a very dry area, you have so very little time to have the alcohol % stay over 95.8%. If you open a 2L container, pour out 1L, then put the cap back on, the remaining 1L will be at 96% within 5-10 minutes. Theres just so little point trying to maintain that extra few %. There’s been a few ethanol extraction threads with most people just saying a little bit of post filtration will remove any potential issues. Some people even swear by the 95.8% producing a better extract than the 100%.
Zeolites in theory also shouldn’t lose you any alcohol. Just rinse them with water (once they’re already saturated) and any alcohol on the surface or holding onto the pores will rinse out. It’ll be low % but just redistill it (if you can!).
You’ll need a vacuum oven to get them useful again IMO. If you’re in a damp climate they take forever to recharge, and even then they have a tendency to absorb moisture from the air unless you’re reaaaaaaly really careful in their transfer and storage.
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Make sure your hydrometer is calibrated correctly to temperature. A few degrees difference can easily mean the difference in a few % alcohol.
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I guess that probably settles it for me then lol
I’m already not overly confident with my storage protocols and it sounds like I’d spend more time fighting to keep my ethanol at 200 proof than it’d be worth.
Looks like I’ll be able to post results by next Friday. Kinda wish I had also read @Future’s Bucket Tek (Cold Ethanol Extraction on a Budget) before asking some of these questions lol
Thanks for all the information so far.
While on the topic, anyone else hear of this? Azeo being 95.6% ABW and 97.2% ABV?
Long thread that I need to read through, but I was wondering if this extra filtration (especially ac) would modify the terp profile?
I have noted a reduction in terps with both AC and Alumina individually. I think Alumina grabs more of the heavier polar terps and AC is just more aggressive across the board.
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I would agree with that. I put some dark terps through alumina and it came out way improved but had like 30% losses. The yield looked like the original lighter fraction from the same steam distillation.
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On the note of neutral bentonite clay. Would it also be prudent to use a neutral ac, or would doing so negate the purpose of the AC in this tek?
I’m also looking at fruit presses and salad spinners for recovering the last of my ethanol from my biomass. Can anyone explain why one would use one or the other, or their preferences in which to use?
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THANKS SO MUCH!!!
FOLLOWED YOUR instruction and fortunately did NOT come with any green. we actually used 25lbs of dry ice to 15gallons of 200 for 5lbs of premium cbd hemp. 30min soak time and 8micron… it was almost (Jesus, take me home slow) but now we are rotovapping it down in the morning. Thankfully no carbon scrubbing or cbleach I am thinking. what temps did you rotovap at?? This will definitely be getting repeated and refined and scaled. Thanks so much lostbiologist!!
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have you checked the Washing Machine "Salad Spinner" tek thread?
I feel the advantage of a fuge over a press is that a fuge does not express the cellular contents, so they don’t have to be removed as a separate step.
you really want about 1000g on your fuge to make it worth the effort.
so an actual salad spinner is not going to bring you joy.
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I was reading through the above mentioned thread and another one, that slips my mind rn, where several options were covered for fuges. I ended up settling on a Panda, hoping to run 250g through it. Is that not enough biomass for the panda either? Also picked up a 3 bag set of 5 gal All mesh bubblebagdude bubble bags for lining my bucket and for putting my biomass in and out of the panda. I really liked the data you provided in one of those posts calculating the G’s each was putting out.
I also spent spent some time researching budget ethanol recovery options and ultimately settled on an 800w 4l adjustable ss alcohol distiller similar to the one mentioned here.
I’m hoping to collect most of the ethanol back from my solution using the distiller, then do a final purge in a heated vacuum chamber since my budget definitely doesn’t allow a rotovap. I’m hoping from what I’ve been reading this will be possible without excessively darkening my oil. I’d really like to put it into carts.
I was also considering trying to do a full decarb because I experience some sort of crystallization in my carts I’m theorizing is thca after reading a few posts last night, or very fine particulate we missed by skipping syringe filter disks. It also seems like they thicken with time, so hoping a decarb will also help with that. I’d normally have good links to reference, but most of it I read in the wee hours. I know several of the points I’m trying to reference were made by you, @cyclopath, though.
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Sorry. My bad on units. 1000 times the force of gravity. Aka 1000G
250g does seem light for the panda, but if you’ve got it in two bags I don’t see an issue. I’ve had a used panda in my hands, but haven’t used one, or even flipped it over to see just how stupid the fire Marshall would consider me if I used one. They clearly work. And unlike some other tek shared on the internet don’t seem to be burning things down on any sort of scale.
An air powered motor, or stationary bike powered one would make me happy, but I’m not likely to get that built given the other toys I’ve need to get spun up at the moment. 
A full decarb will reduce viscosity and darken the oil somewhat. If you scrub as per @TheLostBiologist that slight darkening shouldn’t be problematic.
Your plan seems on target.
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I saw your reply and immediately remembered seeing this:
If you have the panda the optimum amounts are 1.75-2 lbs milled in a bubble bag 73-90 micron. The panda holds two of those for a total of 3.5-4 lbs.
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I ran 270 grams of biomass through my panda when I first got it just to see how it ran. Works fine. Make sure you split it evenly into 2 bags so they can balance each other. I made that mistake of not doing so and ended up fighting with it for long enough to warm up considerably by the time I loaded half into another bag. Glad I did such a small batch so it was a relatively cheap lesson.
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Yep. I was looking for pictures I took in Eugene of a bike powered washer mounted on a trailer.
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If I’m splitting the biomass between 2 bags and only have the 220, 73 and 25 maybe do one in the 220 inside the 25 and the other portion in the 73 alone?
Would it be a bad idea to cool my biomass in Ziploc bags and ethanol in glass bottles with a plastic lid in a solution of dry ice and isopropyl? I was thinking doing so could speed up the rate they cool at and possibly make them even colder than packed in dry ice alone.
I think I’ve gotten away with 1/2gal glass everclear bottles in a dry-ice isopropanol slurry. So long as you can afford to loose 1/2gal of ethanol into your dry ice bath.
ziplocks on the other hand get very fragile at that temp.
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