HG23
Member
Sorry my last comments were a little confusing.
Before I left the seminar, the owner of Chem Tech Services(the actual distillation company) was talking to the Helderpad guy (Sound Extracts) about bringing a pilot or commercial scale distillation plant to Seattle to run hemp oil. They mentioned it would require a team of 3 to operate.
A KDL-6 could definitely be operated solo if certain things have been prepared beforehand. IMO you also have to consider all the support and ancillary operations that have to happen to keep the still running. Extraction from the plant material, winterizing, vacuum system maintenance, cleaning the still between runs, etc. will take a little help and with the costs of these things I can't imagine you would want any down time if at all possible.
I think cleaning the still is something that shouldn't be an afterthought in any way, especially with a fragile glass unit. I couldn't really tell if it was complicated to do or not and don't recall if they went into detail (notice it's included as a topic in the 48k hemp training). I wonder if you have to drain out all the oil jackets, that might take some time. It seems that sometimes (usually?) material needs to be put through the still several times to achieve proper purification and I believe it would need to be cleaned in between batches. This brings up another important point that in a lot of cases they will hook two or more short path evaporator cores in series to keep the still operating in a continuous manner.
To add further onto the idea of continuous operation, they suggested that a standard WFE setup with external condenser could be used to recover ethanol and the output hooked in series to the short path evaporator cores. How sweet would it be to have large, jacketed reaction vessels doing cold ethanol extractions on raw plant material feeding right into the WFE which would feed right into your two short path evaporator cores?? I asked them about what the best way to extract from plant material in preparation for distillation was and the Sound extracts guy said they had the best luck starting with a hydrocarbon crude over CO2 or straight ethanol extract. I didn't get anymore details. The Chem Tech guy smiled and said they're working on a solution without flammable solvents. Whatever that means, that's all he would say about it.
Things might have changed, but I'm looking at their price sheet and it lists an optional two day equipment install/startup for 3.5k and an optional hemp processing technology training program that includes Cannabinoid distillation (CBD/THC), Terpene/flavonoid separation, and system cleaning protocol for 48k. It says they'll take 20% down with the remainder paid at 4k/month or 10% discount for payment in full.
Interesting point about contamination from the diffusion pump. The stills all have cold traps inline but sometimes the fraction inside is desirable and you would want it clean. Two cold traps? Maybe Roji or RB can comment on using turbomolecular pumps.
Before I left the seminar, the owner of Chem Tech Services(the actual distillation company) was talking to the Helderpad guy (Sound Extracts) about bringing a pilot or commercial scale distillation plant to Seattle to run hemp oil. They mentioned it would require a team of 3 to operate.
A KDL-6 could definitely be operated solo if certain things have been prepared beforehand. IMO you also have to consider all the support and ancillary operations that have to happen to keep the still running. Extraction from the plant material, winterizing, vacuum system maintenance, cleaning the still between runs, etc. will take a little help and with the costs of these things I can't imagine you would want any down time if at all possible.
I think cleaning the still is something that shouldn't be an afterthought in any way, especially with a fragile glass unit. I couldn't really tell if it was complicated to do or not and don't recall if they went into detail (notice it's included as a topic in the 48k hemp training). I wonder if you have to drain out all the oil jackets, that might take some time. It seems that sometimes (usually?) material needs to be put through the still several times to achieve proper purification and I believe it would need to be cleaned in between batches. This brings up another important point that in a lot of cases they will hook two or more short path evaporator cores in series to keep the still operating in a continuous manner.
To add further onto the idea of continuous operation, they suggested that a standard WFE setup with external condenser could be used to recover ethanol and the output hooked in series to the short path evaporator cores. How sweet would it be to have large, jacketed reaction vessels doing cold ethanol extractions on raw plant material feeding right into the WFE which would feed right into your two short path evaporator cores?? I asked them about what the best way to extract from plant material in preparation for distillation was and the Sound extracts guy said they had the best luck starting with a hydrocarbon crude over CO2 or straight ethanol extract. I didn't get anymore details. The Chem Tech guy smiled and said they're working on a solution without flammable solvents. Whatever that means, that's all he would say about it.
Things might have changed, but I'm looking at their price sheet and it lists an optional two day equipment install/startup for 3.5k and an optional hemp processing technology training program that includes Cannabinoid distillation (CBD/THC), Terpene/flavonoid separation, and system cleaning protocol for 48k. It says they'll take 20% down with the remainder paid at 4k/month or 10% discount for payment in full.
Interesting point about contamination from the diffusion pump. The stills all have cold traps inline but sometimes the fraction inside is desirable and you would want it clean. Two cold traps? Maybe Roji or RB can comment on using turbomolecular pumps.
