Hey guys. So recently our system just has t been able to keep up. We were running butane In a cls, with 4”x36” columns that would hold 3.3 lbs of material. Running in 3 lb increments is no longer efficient. All signs and advice point to switching to ethanol extraction. Ideally I’d like to be able to do 50-100 lbs a day with ease, as opposed to 25 lbs with non stop work and running the machine. I’m having a few people help me assemble a build. Basically going for a glorified bucket tek. But it seems like anything the More i research the more rabbit holes I find myself in. My first concern is the best way to chill, and keep my whole process cold. But as for rabbit holes, I come across posts like “acidification of my ethanol” and then start learning about reproofing etc. and I go from
Having a decent build plan, to “omg do I need a 14 foot tall still too?”
My post is asking generally, when switching over to ethanol, what are some of the more unforeseen problems one can run into? Currently I’m going to try tetraguys suggestion on a build. A few 10”x24” columns. Cryo etho. Drip dry, panda spin. Details omitted. But now learning about acidification, proofing, etc it seems a bit overwhelming to formulate a clean sop from start to finish. Soo… what are your main “keep in mind/beware of” thoughts as I get closer to trying to get this off the ground?
Guys usually run into bottlenecks with solvent recovery (reducing), but Dustin fixed that with the Falling Film system from Agile Stainless – they have a 10’ tall system so its usually height friendly wherever it goes, and the footprint is just generally small. Its priced very well too…
Yea, the real details on system purchases I have yet to nail down is my chilling solutions. Whether deep freezers, chillers etc. and the recovery is my second thing I have to nail down. But those are all things I can figure out by researching different solutions and products to determine what’s best for my needs. I’m more worried about things I wouldn’t see coming, for example that dude that has his etho acidifying… or my etho losing potency over time. These are things that are a little deeper into the science side and I want to be best prepared. Like I said, I went from feeling confident in my build, to reading about giant stills for reproofing. Others experiences usually yield great advice. Thank you so far for the reply
Chilling is by the most expensive part. It’s why I set up my cash strapped labs with warm wash and just excessive post process scrubbing. Cause filters and man hours is relatively cheap compared to 50-75k per chiller.
Also you can soak the same ethanol 2-3 times making your roto vapes much more efficient in regards to the amount of oil in each gallon of ethanol
Chryo initially. But I end up with the exact same product as the Chryo guys. Minus a few terps. But if it’s industrial hemp not rly any terps to begin with
end product is crude for distillate. As i know ethanol typically doesnt put out real nice shatter and such anyway.
any solvents are an option if they are efficient for my use
Like i said currently with my cls we can do about 25 pounds of material in a fairly long day. Being able to double or quadruple that is really the goal, all while eliminating the hazards of butane, etc. The process for ethanol extraction all seem real simple. But like i said, right when i think i somewhat have it all under my understanding, i go to bed wondering what happens if my ethanol starts to acidify lol.
I figured a few people may have some insight into hurdles they ran into that they didnt expect
Ethanol oil with Some terps added before hardening makes Some radical shatter
But ok not real treu
Hexane is my solvent of choice for warm /cold extraction
Yes iT pulls fats but with the panda as a filter aid iT is no pain to winterize
Greatest bennefit iT does not pull clorofyl
So i bbasicly do the Bucket tech with hexane
I ADD b80 to the evaporation of hexane and filter that out with 25 mic with the last bit of solvent from the still
Then evaporate dry in the rotavape
Then ADD to methanol for winterizing with Some b80 still in deu to the 25 mic filtration
This b80 helps to floculate the fats to the botom
Then evap this. Down then ad Some hexane and do a louch with water to get the methanol terps And water gunk out
Do Some. Crc with b80 and active aluminium and magnesol to clear up the crude and evap the hexane off and decarb
Then spd
Unless you pay slave wages this logic dose not pan out. Look at industrialization for example. Cost savings comes from automation and labor reduction. If you pay $15/hr for 1 full time employee it only takes 2.6 years for the salary alone to pay for a $75,0000 chiller. Add in employee taxes, filter media costs, decreased production, managerial/supervision costs and you very quickly realize that you always purchase equipment to automate over adding more labor. ALWAYS. What you probably meant to say is that the initial startup cost is less with additional labor over the purchase of a chiller but after 6 months of operation that statement is far less accurate and after 1-2 years it is completely inaccurate.
This only works for distillate
Hexane at very low ppm still has scent
Advantages of hexane
The stuff evaporates fast 2x as fast. As methanol
IT comes out pure no azeotropes with dry biomass
IT s non polar with the B80 iT comes out gold after First evaporation
But iT s not a Healthy solvent so care must be taken when working with iT
I still want to see if it works
