Does anyone have any experience with Ultrasonic extraction or microwave-assisted extraction?
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No experience utilizing it but I am looking into it as a subsequent step to traditional ethanol extraction. It seems like it’s going to extract a lot of extra ballast but can be a good solution for maximizing cannabinoid retention… These guys have a nice continuous flow unit for around $100k Fast And Simple Ultrasonic Cannabis Extraction
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Some testing labs extract flower samples using an ultrasonic bath. Others prefer to vortex the samples in solution. Either way you can completely extract the cannabinoids from the biomass within 15 minutes using ethanol or methanol as the solvent. That is used at a micro scale 1g extractions but I’m sure it could be scaled up with proper equipment
Any idea how well you can isolate terpenes with it? I was thinking perhaps using water instead of ethanol, and using a centrifuge to separate the terpene layer out.
Following up on an old thread. Has anyone tried this yet? I am currently partnered with a group that is doing the extraction with ultrasonic and room temp ethanol. What they give me to distill ends up just being half tar in the distillation pot flask at the end of a run. While we get solid potency tests, we also get a horrible mess to clean out of the pot flask. To say this method requires significant scrubbing and filtering is an understatement. I have suggested to them that it is too aggressive on the biomass and actually slows our throughput with all the extra work required. Just wondering if anyone else has tried ultrasonic extraction yet. I definitely think residence times need to be short to limit this problem and it should be done with cryogenic ethanol but they aren’t believing me yet.
Never done it, but I personally would never consider adding it in to anything except a cryo setup. Maybe.
You’re getting more “yield” as a total mass fraction extracted, but if bet if you redefine “yield” as “% of total cannabinoids pulled from plant matter into the solvent” you’re at basically the same number. And might end up lower in the end because of losing so much in the filtering process.
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Yep, that’s my assessment so far after 4 or 5 runs with their crude.
I think rogue said he started his extraction in them at like -80c and by the time they get to -60c he stops. Those aren’t the exact numbers but they are close. He was talking about this running sub zero ethanol. He will chime in
What size filter bags are you using?
They aren’t using bags st all. Just a custom built bath with multiple ultrasonic transducers.
Yep Cryo temps is key
I start at -86 C and stop around -80/-70 C Wich usualy takes No more than 5 min adding dry ice to the bath to freeze her up before i start. I Trow in all biomass in a Cotton pillowcase tied with a zipty trow in vacuumbag and freeze biomass to -86 overnight
Pour ethanol in without degassing trowin the biomass extract while sonic bath is on have the feeling that the low hertz work better so 21k hertz ultrasound instead of 35 or 45 No evidance thou take bag out When temp rises to mutch into the panda with the bag into a Bucket with etho or iso for a second wAsh and into a next panda 2 wash for there is still something left on biomass after the ultrasound wash
I keep the washes seperated of course its a quest to find the. Right piazo speakers for the job Some freeze up If Any i would now recomend working with a industrial probe instead also You have to open the bath and isulate iT i put plastic covers over My electronics and microwave plastic foil and filled her up with liquid expanding construction foam for insulation but more important condensation of the electric components. And a good ground kabel direct to the water tubing Wich is made of koper Where i work
I never had the luxery of in house analitics so No proof iT is better by far but i have iT as part of My sop for a long time e=“nomadgt, post:5, topic:869”]
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Thanks for the reply Roguelab. As a result of your process I take it your crude comes out looking nice and doesn’t cause you any issues in the distillation pot flask. Do you have any pics of your crude you can share?
Have you tries pouring it out while it’s still hot into a metal can? I find pouring the tar out is half the battle. Have you tryed a steam cleaning wand or limomine yet?
Yes that’s exactly what we do currently. We pour out what we can then spend another hour working with boiling water to scrub the rest out. Not a very productive way to operate though.
After I do a run I very quickly empty and carefully clean with ethanol. What ever does not come out I then soak with Cafiza Link Works really well. For really nasty runs it might need an overnight soak but it definitely works!!
Very familiar with Cafiza! Anyone with a decent espresso machine knows how useful this stuff is. We just bought some alconox though and will be trying that.
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I’ve found the cafiza to work about the same as alconox. If you have the budget a sonicating bath would really speed up the process.
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There is an entire family of alconox products out there beyond just the alconox detergent powder.
@Jay-TL can’t beat a sonic cleaner with a stick! I love my chineese ultrasonic baths!
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I have to agree with that statement. The one thing I didn’t want to do after my distillation run is to clean my glass. My Chinese ultrasonic bath just does such a easy job for $250.
One thing I will say. After I was done cleaning my distillation glass the other night. I stuck my dab rigs in there and the ultrasonic cleaner broke one of the peculator in the bong. Thank god that was a $30 Chinese piece too. Oh well.
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