I want to improve my wash step while I move towards my first SPD run. I usually wash less than 1/4 lb at a time and where it is for personal I don’t do it on a super regular basis (so my procedures don’t need to be for massive volume or repeatable daily).
Typically I get things to -20 C (dry ice is about 25 minutes away and fairly $$), including freezing my 1000ml non-fritted 9cm buchner. I use whatman #1 filter paper (standard).
pour alcohol into 1L jar of frozen bio
put in freezer for about 4.5 minutes
while freezing set up buchner in the last few minutes, pull test vac, drop a couple drops of frozen alcohol on the filter
while under vac pour biomass and alcohol into buchner
wait for EVER while the shit slowly filters through
So I want to add a filter step, possibly get a fritted buchner that’s larger with more surface area, maybe get a ceramic filter as a step 1? I thought maybe a stainless steel screen in my buchner now, and then 2nd pass through a fritted buchner?
I have celite 545 and plan on upgrading my filter setup. I do plan on using dry ice when I do my batch for SPD.
you will want to perform several filtrations, start rough and progress toward finer filters, watch that dry ice in the etoh for chilling, dry ice is both dirty and will make your resin slightly acidic.
I hear sintered glass buchners are 3 micron or so. I’d do that last and start with a bigger pore size, for speed. Another thing to try is winterizing in your standard freezer for 48 hrs and running (more like crawling) that through a 20 micron stainless steel mesh. You might want to do just a little at a time and put it back to cool down then do some more, you know, to keep it cold. You should see some flocculation. Don’t let it melt back into solution. A 1/4 inch celite cake atop your filter paper will finely filter particulates similarly to the sintered disc buchners. I do this last and at room temp. It’s slow.
Sounds like you could use some help. I filter about a gallon a minute on average. I don’t use buchner until the end. This tek costs me $350 initial start up. Dm for consult.
Thanks for the tips, I think I am going to do a larger ceramic filter with a stainless steel screen for the stage 1 filter. I was wondering which size mesh to get… I was thinking about the 60, but here is the chart:
I plan on cutting pieces to fit into the ceramic buchner which is 12cm. I don’t usually run more than a few liters at a time but I don’t want to have it sitting in the biomass for longer while it filters. Hopefully with the stainless steel screen step I can get the alcohol out of the biomass quickly and then filter from there.
I do a room temp thru 10 micron coffee filter on top of a 3 micron for the bel art. Then into the freezer and then do 4 micron and then 1 a few hrs later and then into rhe roto
I think you need centrifugal force to remove the alcohol from your plant material.
Ghetto ethanol extraction would be something like sticking the biomass in an all mesh bag, soaking in subzero ethanol, removing bagged biomass, spinning out remaining solvent, filtering soup thru media of choice & rotovap.
Remember after your wash, it’s always better to do first filtration at room temp. Typically about 4-8-12 hours after so to let it sit and coagulate at room temp. It allows secondary winterization to be significantly more agressive and effective. If you freeze your first time out the filtration is worse and you’ll be slowly redissolving fats back in.
I never would put dry ice in anything I would consume!
Several filtrations and I like what @spdking says, your wash and filtration are separate and doing that filtration at room temp sounds smart.
@pollenmaster I really am not running the kind of volume that would necessitate that sort of process. The most I wash at once is like a 1/2 gallon canning jar, typically just 1-2 one liter sized jars.
Anybody have any experience with the different grade meshes of stainless steel?
Consider stainless steel mesh screens a fad and they should be avoided. You really want is a open flow stainless steel plate of some sort. And then use analytical grade laboratory filters above it that is what will actually keep your fultration operating properly.
