does anyone have any experience using pressure and vacuum to separate ethanol from hemp instead of using a spinner? is it comparably efficient? Ive been using a panda but even after cutting it up some im lucky to be able to run 3lbs at a time through it before it gets to be a pain in the ass to remove the mesh bag. Ive got a 100gal stainless steel fermenting tank with tri clamp ports on the bottom side and lid. my plan is to essentially install a large basket and motor on it and turn it into a big spinner that i can extract in and then spin and drain. another option ive seen is to build pressure in the extraction tank and vacuum in the collection tank below and then slowly open the bottom port to “push” the ethanol out of the plant material through a mesh false bottom into the collecting tank. my question is, is this efficient? will it work? should I just build a 100gal spinner? what are some other separation options to enhance efficiency? thanks!!
just scale your panda: Washing Machine "Salad Spinner" tek. (aka SpeedQueen Tek)
turning up gravity 1000 fold works WAY better that just removing the liquid one can push out with pressure. using vacuum will get you a little more solvent, but will evaporate the last of it, leaving that portion of the cannabinoids behind.
even if you can spin a basket in that tank, which I doubt, you won’t get it moving fast enough to be a whole lot of use. IF I’m wrong about your fabrication skills, and you’ve got the ability to actually balance a 1+ meter diameter rotor, you’ll need at least 10HP (I’m aiming at 30HP on a 800mm rotor) to spin it up to speed.
I agree! I’ve tried to purge ethanol from biomass with n2, doesn’t work worth a damn
thanks for the advice! thats what weve been leaning towards, I was just seeing if anyone had actually had any luck with a “push/pull” method before we upgrade the spinner. my background is biology with a little chemistry and some decent fabrication/welding skills from working on old motorcycles. my partner the engineer seems confident we can make it work, my biggest concern was balancing but the plan is to bolt it down and strap it to a wall and pray it doesnt shake down the building. were going to partner with a brewery supply company for a lot of the fabrication. the tank is 130gal and we plan to hopefully be able to spin 50lb batches at a time in it. he has a lot more experience building small motors than me but what we were initially thinking was 2hp 3450rpm motor, geared down 2:1 which should be able to spin at 1500-1800 rpm. is that fast enough? we can easily throw a bigger motor at it. is this…advisable?
i showed him the wachine machine conversion and his response was why not just build a bigger one with the bigger tank we have
It’s not the rpm you look at, it’s the rcf
You want rcf of about 1000.
Formula is in thread referenced earlier.
The forces involved are quite high…get it wrong at that scale and it could be more excitement that you really wanna deal with.
Before it shakes down the building, bolts will shear and you will have more problems (and potential injuries) than you care to. The amount of potential energy carried in the rotor at speed should be enough encouragement to not do what you’re thinking unless you’ve had an engineer and certified fabricator look at it. I’d say you’re playing with fire if you move ahead with the fuge building, but fire is much more safe than a massive, unbalanced fuge. Just my two cents.
heyy love a good conversion formula. so the diameter of the tank is 2.5ft so it looks like we would need to hit 1,500 RPM to achieve 1,000 RCF. the fabrication would definitely be done by a professional brewery supply building company and my partner is a pretty brilliant engineer, maybe its still a bad idea, idk but ill keep this post updated on how it goes. ive seen large old lab centrifuges VIOLENTLY rip themselves apart from colleagues not loading them correctly, definitely not something i ever want to experience on a 5x scale. after doing a little poking around, were essentially building this: USA Lab 20L Helios-20 Jacketed SS304 Ethanol Centrifuge - USA Made - C1D1 &2 -UL - USA Lab just for waaayyy cheaper since weve pretty much already got all the materials
runout and balancing are gonna be your primary issues. if you’ve got the ability to swing a 30in rotor on a lathe and or mount it to a truck tire balancing rig, you might get there.
I believe you’ll want at least a 10HP 3-phase motor. having bluetooth on your VFD so you can run it from your phone from a safe distance is helpful. and I recommend watching from the mezzanine.
vibration is frequency dependent. if you can’t alter the speed, you can’t move away from harmful harmonics.
making tanks and building a centrifuge are entirely different endeavors.
It is possible to get very dry material with pressure through the bags in tanks but takes way more skill than just hitting the run button on a fuge
Eh. Maybe with hydrocarbons
Just brilliant (and funny)
“Observe from a safe distance” is also the warning label I believe @cyclopath himself comes with. *Range varies with mood and activity being observed. Gotta RTFM again…
Ethanol too. It’s not easy but it’s possible.
so a really nice washing machine even after some tinkering is going to have a really hard time reaching 1000 rcf, maybe half or 3/4 that maybe. but I suppose running multiple washing machines is still safer since they were designed to be balanced. The plan is to use a tire balance for the basket. Im no engineer but he seems confident we can achieve close to 1,500 rpm safely. We’ll see. Still a relatively cheap build comparable to buying several washers. Way cheaper than 64 grand USA labs one, holy shit. Will still be several months before we can start on it so I’ll update y’all from the mezzanine if it violently shreds itself lol
How did you achieve this?
co2 pressurized tanks with the bags well seated so the gas has to travel through the bags