Did You Know: The Filtration Skid Enables Ethanol Extraction of Multiple Bags of Biomass
If you’re running an extraction operation it pays to optimize each part of the process that you possibly can to maximize efficiencies and increase profitability. In these uncertain times, the ability to squeeze your margins can make or break your extraction business. Our Filtration Skid will enable you to reuse your ethanol solution for multiple extractions. Cannabinoids can be extracted from multiple bags of biomass thereby reducing the cost of production.
Here’s how it works:
To properly and effectively extract cannabinoids, most processors extract with cold ethanol. This requires the chilling of large amounts of ethanol quickly to very cold temperatures. This is achieved by our DC-40 Direct Chiller. When your ethanol is at the right temperature it can be added to the biomass for extraction by utilizing the Centrifuge Utility Platform AKA our famous CUP-15/30.
One of the best ways to optimize this process is to saturate your ethanol solvent with as much cannabinoids as it can hold. This minimizes the amount of ethanol you need to evaporate down the track. This saturation is achieved by extracting multiple bags of biomass in the CUP-15/30 with the same volume of ethanol.
This is the point in the process where the lenticular filtration skid comes into play. It filters the ethanol between extractions on the CUP-15/30 to allow the DC-40 to maintain solvent temperature so that the same solution can be used for up to 3 bags of biomass. The end result being ultra-saturated solution that is ready to go into your evaporator.
To summarize, the basic, initial stages of the extraction process are as follows:
- Load CUP-30 bags with biomass
- Prepare bags by freezing them overnight
- Chill 30 gallons of ethanol to -40C (DC-40)
- Extract the first bag of biomass (CUP-30)
- Check temperature of ethanol (for example, it drops to -30C)
- Filter solution (via Lenticular Filtration)
- Re-chill ethanol down to -40C (DC-40)
- Extract the second bag of biomass (CUP-30)
- Check temperature of ethanol
- Filter, and re-chill if necessary (Lenticular Filtration + DC-40)
- Extract the third bag of biomass (CUP-30)
- Filter solution (Lenticular Filtration)
- Evaporate ethanol (FFE)…
- …and onwards!
If you have any questions about our lenticular filtration skid or ethanol extraction in general please contact us and we’d be happy to answer them.