I was doing some research and found this ultrasonic extraction method for nano particle extractions. Anybody got any more info or a better explanation for us hydrocarbon peasants.
I believe this is the future of extraction.
6 Likes
If youāre using ethanol as a solvent I would say sonication is overkill and results in blasting open plant cells on the green leafy parts of the plant instead of just targeting trichomes. I have had two different customers try this and they both had the same results when we distilled their crude. Significant amounts of black tar, high temps required to wrestle the CBD out of the crude because of that tar and very low yields.
8 Likes
Iāll save you 47 minutes.
The technique boils down to a fancy version of the washing phase of bubble hash (sound explodes trichome, oil is released into water). I was trying to do something identical with enzyme assisted extractionā¦but at the end of the day we already have extraction methods that are commercially superior.
The first 47min of the video is A) how ultrasound works and B) how ultrasound is useful for nanoemulsions. Soā¦this technique would be better as a solution mixer for other processes, or for making water āsolubleā cannabinoid mixtures.
22 Likes
^^^ This.
Iāve already seen some specs for one of the machine designs. Really cool concept, water + US waves knocks all the oils and trichs loose as a pump pushes the extracted material to a collection pot.
Itās essentially closed loop water extraction.
4 Likes
According to the vid they do not even offer an off the shelf setup for extraction yet. They offer a nano emulsification stabilizer system that will process 20-50L per hour but no extraction system yet.
3 Likes
I think ultrasonics may have a place in kief extractions, which Iāve been told are āinefficientā and āa real bitch.ā
Definitely useful for nanoemulsions.
For standard biomass extractions, probably not much so.
3 Likes
Microfluidics
Its overkill for extraction do not do this
I just did two UAE experiments this week. One in water and one in ethanol. I donāt have hexane or heptane (Iām a type 6 nonvolatile extractor in CA) so pulling the canns from the water wasnāt worth the effort. I definitely blasted for too long (15min, I was board and had nothing better to do) and the reduction in particular size made it not worth my time to bubble bag as most everything was passing right through. The etho I did at room temp 100% amp for 5min and man was it green but after Alumina and T41 it was golden!! Will be evaporatoring and vac purging next week. I forgot to take pictures. I think UAE is best suited for topicals as you can extract directly into what ever you ant glycerin, olive oil, MCT, what ever you want then a simple filter and your done.
Iāll be doing more tests soon with pretested flower, different amplitudes, times, solvents, temps, and solvent to plant ratios.
I have a Hielscher UIP500.
9 Likes
I have tried this, not good for small scale.
if placed in direct contact extraction, the tip of the sonicator probe will slowly corrode and leak nano sized particles of titanium into the product- this is bad down the line, when concentrated you may fail tests for metals contamination.
There are systems that do not allow the probe tip to come into contact with the solvent and may have some merit if one wanted to spend the time and money to engineer a flowcell type system that can pump solvent through a packed column of biomass .
You are also reducing the particle size of your unwanted substances down to unfilterable levels if left to sit, so there will have to be a lot of tweaking with flow, intensity of ultrasound, amount of material to extract, etc - likely as the solvent is saturated you will have to vary the intensity and flow rate to get optimal extraction- seems like overall it wonāt be more effective than more traditional and time tested methods but Iād be interested to see what anyone else may think of this.
4 Likes
I have my new extraction equipment coming in. It is ultrasound assisted Iām really curious to see how it works I can give you guys some feedback if you like. Or a pic if you want to check it out. I have heard it speeds up the process but we will see.
3 Likes
This is something I have thought about for a few years. Just today I was talking with someone who runs a large lab in Oregon and they said it actually increased the amount of cannabinoids in the biomass instead of extracting them.
This is the future, inline sonicators doing the heavy lifting. We just got a Hielscher UIP2000 and while we have never done traditional extracting, our test run with Cannabis couldnāt have been easier. After a light charcoal filter we got perfect color. The strength and taste was great.
2 Likes
Thatās the system we were considering when we want to scale up and do in-line.
Their website and cut/instructions sheet are kinda bad (Fast And Simple Ultrasonic Cannabis Extraction) but their sales engineer seemed super helpful, hope to be able to work with them.
Ultrasonic-Cannabis-Extraction-Step-by-Step-Hielscher-Ultrasonic.pdf (245.8 KB)
2 Likes
Testing
9 Likes
Where did u get the probe
1 Like
Only the best, Hielscher from Germany.
6 Likes
What power? For what amount?
2 Likes