Hello everyone
I’ve recently added a CRC column to my extractor
I was just curious as to what kind of PSI and flow rate you guys were running/getting when pushing through W1
Currently I’m running a 3” CRC. Material columns are 6x36 and I run about 4lbs of material per column, about 25lbs of solvent.
My flow seems pretty slow. I can maintain a small but steady stream at 80PSI, barely a trickle down the side of the collection pot at 50-60PSI. It takes me roughly 15-20 minutes to push all 25lbs of solvent through my CRC.
Are you guys experiencing similar times and pressure requirements? Is my CRC perhaps too small in diameter?
I’ve also considered adding a fats catching per @Waxplug1 recommendation in the CRC thread.
Please let me know if your experience is similar to mine, or if I need to adjust my system to get optimal flow rates.
As an aside, the runs come out great. I don’t seem to be losing yield and the W1 works incredibly well at pulling color.
Are you sure you don’t have anything polar in your solvent (like water)? Sounds like it might be gumming up. We have a similar issue if we end up with any methanol/water in our W1 while polishing where it almost gums up. W1 normally flows very quickly.
I’m pretty much positive about that. I run my solvent extremely cold. Solvent tank sits on dry ice and a small amount of acetone, and I use a condensing coil that sits in dry ice/acetone. If I had any water in my solvent I’d surely have issues elsewhere in my system.
Also run a molecular sieve column. 4x12” with 3A beads. I don’t believe that’s my problem.
20 micron filters paper and mesh gaskets at the bottom of my material columns.
No other filtration before the CRC.
CRC filtration is 5 micron felt on a standard filter plate, 5 micron mesh gasket below that, 5 micron sintered disk below that. Haven’t ever seen any media on my Sintered disk
Just a thought, maybe your 5micron felt is getting clogged? My current crc filter staging is as follows: celite-25Paper-10Paper-cotton balls-5 micron Sintered disc-1micron sintered disc
I was attempting an “active” CRC, a.k.a no nitrogen push, just relying on my Corken. That was so painstakingly and stupidly slow I learned my lesson quick.
I have a nitrogen tank being delivered Monday so I’m researching how to properly handle it. Seems simple enough but how do you know how much nitrogen to back the amount of solvent?
Its not just how many PSI to push it through yada yada…
Its how many psi are you pushing into how many psi.
If your collection pot is at 30 psi then you will need more than 30 to push thru it. If the collection pot is at 0psi or less then you need much less to push it.
I start at my recovery tank. 70/30 doesnt take quite as much N to push because it wants to stay around 30 psi. N-tane stays around 10psi so i will bump that up to around 30 psi as I start to flood. I need to push solvent thru a cold coil and into the material column.
The material column (non jacketed) will freeze from the cold.solvent and i try to cram as much solvent as I can using a bi-directional fill.
Next is the dewax column. It stays super low to negative pressure from the DI jacket. That negative pressure will suck the solvent thru and the psi will slowly go up as more pressurized solvent fills the dewaxer.
Sure u can just crank the nitrogen to “11” but i keep it low and slow for best results. This whole time im adjusting N pressure based on what im pushing against.
From the dewaxer it goes to the CRC. I never have really needed to use the vapor lock valve but its nice to know its there. I keep the bottom (out) valve closed at least half way and the top valve (in) goes from half to all the way open. I only need about 20psi more than the collection pot to flow properly thru the CRC. My collection starts at -30 so it pulls pretty good for a while. When it starts to pressurize (10-20psi) I turn off the valve feeding solution to the recovery pot and release the N pressure in the collection pot only back down to around zero. As long as the difference between the dewaxer and the collection pot is 20psi or more it flows as fast as i want it to. Im always adjusting valves and adding N here and there to adjust on the fly. I add tane thru the material column into the whole loop until i have collected all the solution - and then i add heat to the collection (distillation) pot to start recovery. Again pressure effects distillation. If your recovery pot is too pressurized it wont let the solvent distill. I do the same little move of closing the valve feeding the recovery pot, releasing N pressure, continue recovering (distilling)
I usually take 20 minutes or so to dump into the collection pot. If i do it faster it doesnt remediate color as well (using b80) so now i ordered some w1 and w2 go play with and I’ll see how my flow rate changes. Hopefully i can blast it right thru and it will come out clear.
I would recommend to use the narrowest column u can to still fit as much media into it as you need. I have a 4" crc under a 6"dewaxer fed by 3" or 4" material columns. Also the wider you go you have to press the media harder to prevent channeling. I always dewax and then remediate - i think thats still the preferred way.
I have toyed with putting different media under the material column but it stopped me from being able to go bi-directional with my solvent wash. It wasnt worth the extra effort to go that route to make it bidirectional and still have a filter plate under it. Maybe i will come back to it in the future.
I use a 6" crc under 6" column. No channeling no flow issues. I push 18# solvent through 2# material and 200g b80 in 20 min. No nitrogen. Running passive. Its all about how you set up. I barely even pack my media. Ill post some pics of setup next run. I started with a small crc and had way more issues with flow/channeling.
200g of b80 makes about a 1" cake in a 6" filter plate. How do u know you dont have channeling issues? Do u have a sight glass on your CRC? Have any pics of the media cake before and after? Do u have a showerhead or anything to disperse the solvent into the media?
I usually use between 4-7#solvent:1#biomass.
18# solvent is a lot for 2# of material. Are you doing nug runs? With Isobutane maybe? Y so much? If i did 9:1 i would need a chiller (more than i already do) because i would be chugging thru DI. Im already at 50-100# DI per run of 3-7# biomass. I would have to double my dry ice consumption to keep up with 9:1
No soak on material i flush right through, when using less solvent i was losing yield on same strain. I also flush extra solvent through just my crc. I have a hemispherical lid with sight glass to see into crc. Filter plate with felt filter underneath sitting on top of media to evenly disperse solvent. I will take pics next time i run. And i just get a tote of dry ice its cheap because we’ve been getting so long
This is the diagram I built for my current setup, I blast at -65C so I don’t really de-wax. I was previously running my CRC passive but feel like if I can dial it in active I would save more time and have better product.
When I inject 12lbs of solvent in to 2-3lbs of material I let it soak for 10m and then attempt to get it to the CRC column, it usually builds about 50-60psi. I crack the valve slowly allowing pressure to build, after a few minutes a steady pour goes and then stops quickly. I turn on my compressor and my collection vessel will stay at 0psi but the psi in my CRC column will stay around 40psi, and material column around 50psi, as more fluid transfers the flow decreases to an absolutely dribble, making getting the last 10lbs out a nightmare.
I ordered a nitrogen tank to arrive Monday and have been researching nitrogen pushes all morning.
Why did you order a nitrogen tank? You can get one at praxair or airgas for free. You’re going to have to give them your new one anyway when its time to swap cylinders…
