I see.
I mean. It’s not an entirely inappropriate use of your chiller. I just forsee some stuff getting sticky along the way. Is the pump and all its seals rated for alcohol?
I can see that being a potential issue. Same with any other seals or gaskets along the flowpath. Once your alcohol starts dripping onto your electrics, it’s a whole different set of problems.
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Heptane compatibility is almost more important, as most labs cheap out and buy CDA12-A, but your point remains.
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It’s actually a pretty good idea for most situations.
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Most chiller fluid that gets this cold is flammable, as well. Most of the manufacturers test the units with alcohol, it’s cheaper than dwtherm when you spill it. Most of the internals are capable of using alcohol.
And I would assume they are using clean alcohol before they extract with it. If not, then I’m on the same page as you are
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Agree with you, seals, pump and pipes are rated for ethanol. But we have to consider the problem of that stuff getting sticky et, because the ethanol is reused in the process.
Pipes and all the fittings have to be bigger and easy to clean.
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LOL, yes I forget the ethanol is reciced to the chiller again
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If you have it going through a cup of sorts, it wouldn’t. It would chill the res, then send it through the cup. How shitty is it to not use it more than once
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I want a refrigerated cold slab like at cold stone
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Sssh!
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I’d so love more information about this. <3
I’ve been doing side by side analysis on just this thing and I’ve found that about 60% of the time I’m seeing people who are trying to double up saturation are leaving ~30% of the THC behind in the biomass (which they rarely test until I come and ask them to do so). I don’t see issues with that when people don’t recirculate their tincture for a second set of saturation.
Some people seem to be really doing the mass balance for how much they are pulling from the plant matter and how much solvent is needed - but that appears to be less than half. And even people who say they are doing it appear to be leaving a lot behind specific to trying to do this saturated tincture (which I think is a great plan and lowers bottlenecks down the line).
I looked and I didn’t see a huge data dump on mass balances and saturation levels and associated waste amounts, etc. If you have some I’d be so happy to see it. I want about 5 more data points worth of info before I share mine.
Thanks.
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I chill my ETOH to -40, on a loop, pump what I need through my CUP 30. Filters , then SRS, reclaiming most of my ETOH, before adding back to my initial feed tank i test the proof if it satisfies my QA team, we rechill and reuse. This is applicable only when I have a constant Lot of feedstock that I am running.
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Because we barely trust those chillers to work. Trusting that you’ve used food grade components in a device not expected to see such duty simply makes no sense.
It’s not like this is a new concept:
We just have zero faith in the internals…
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Trick is to put an arometrix fraction finder on your outlet and tune your times and solvent volumes.
I’ve used repeated sampling of the effluent via hplc, but having analytics directly on the fuge is huge.
But I’ve been pushing In House analytics since I got here three years ago…
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I’m doing in house analytics and I do analytics for others when I come out just in case (sometimes I even bring a stupid heavy “portable” unit with me). Sure would love to have a fraction finder on my outlet…instead of having to grab samples all the time. 15 minutes is 15 minutes, you know?
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I’ve lugged around a small GC in the past…
As a consultant, the $8k Arrometrix device is a great investment. Not so much if you’ve only got one fuge. You really only need it for initial optimization.
Recirc till asymptote, you got what you’re getting…
Edit: now if they would admit that I called and asked them to build the damn thing…
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we run in a fashion that sounds like @Hayes 's setup, chilling using the method youre suggesting (and only using chilled jackets to maintain that temp)–our chiller only chills ethanol, which is then sent in a bypass around the chiller to the CUP30 extraction process. nothing but clean ethanol makes contact with our chiller, ever. we also have a bunch of circuits that allow us to manipulate valves to chill jackets on our system when we need to, using the same clean ethanol, so we can maintain the low temp of our ethanol and cannabinoid slurry during our extraction and filtration processes.
we’re also preparing to possible install a passive circuit that diverts a small amount of the flow coming out of the chiller to the jackets on the extraction chamber and collection vessel, while still allowing us to use our existing setup as normal. can give more details if anyone’s curious.
long story short, @EffisonAndy you’re totally right, by far a more efficient way to chill ethanol before extracting, run it in a loop between your tank and the chiller and it gets to temp with the quickness–just don’t put anything but clean ethanol through the chiller
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Yes, just dont put anything but clean ethanol through the chiller, that is whai I am thinking.
Manipulate valves pipes is very easy to design, like this pic shows. One valve is for the jacket, the other pipe is for the cold clean ethanol to though and go inside the extractor, centrifuges, etc. We can discuss the details and design if anyone is intersted.
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Good thinking outside the box! Even better, design a chiller to handle clean ethanol and tincture that is easy to clean, using food grade and heptane resistant components.
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Manifold is the word you’re looking for. (I’m not trying to be an jerk, just trying to help.) Since it’s already posted openly, you should think about having the ethanol incoming to the centrifuge to come in through a shower ball in the center to coat the biomass.
No, I don’t need 1 designed. But if you want to send me some shit, I’ll beat on it!
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