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Imagine processing cannabis by the ton
- Thread starter JColtrane
- Start date
Yeah, like that!
Things are marching on, yes? We used pressures that high for Hot Isostatic Pressing super alloys to heal internal voids and improve mechanical properties, and at elevated temperatures.
We've also long used pressures higher than that, in air reduction, water blasting and in water jet cutting, as well as hydraulics, so achieving the required pressure was no stretch. With pneumatic or hydraulic intensifiers, you can hit multiples of that.
I've only operated to 45ksi for water jet cutting of exotic alloys, with injected garnet or zircon sand, but there is equipment going higher.
Pressures that high do open up a whole new can of whupasswurms, because of the machining tolerance you have to hold and the issues with compatible thermal expansion.
At those pressures, o-rings are easily extruded through normal machining tolerance gaps, soooooooo zee material selection and fit is crucial.
Valves also tend to shift a mite hard at those pressures, so a tapered seating arrangement or similar technique is required. Our first attempt at a hydraulic intensifier operating at 3ksi inlet pressure at 66 gpm and 20 gpm at 10 ksi output pressure, resulted in frequent failure from the ball check valves shifting.
It sounded like a shotgun blast when they shifted and it shook the slab it was bolted to. We designed a tapered seating valve, to replace the ball valve, so as to shift more gently, and lived more happily ever after.
I underline more, because anything operating at those pressures and flow are a maintenance man's fondest dream, justifying his existence, as well as funding his children's orthodontics, and college.
Kudos and accolades to RC and RHH for adding keen links to more direct extraction applications, but remember that with those pressures, come maintenance costs, so don't forget to research those and plug them into your business plan.
Does everyone think industrial BHO is better than hash? I don't understand how this whole BHO scene came to be.
Will anyone out west compare BHO vs. ice hash tonnage scale facility opening costs? Have the regulation writers regulated hash out while solvent extraction under pressure is okey dokey? What's so uncool about hash and hash making that anyone considers BHO and CO2?
Will anyone out west compare BHO vs. ice hash tonnage scale facility opening costs? Have the regulation writers regulated hash out while solvent extraction under pressure is okey dokey? What's so uncool about hash and hash making that anyone considers BHO and CO2?
Can only comment on this. With supercritical fluids the co2 will permeate the o-ring. If the co2 depressurizes while still in the o-ring it will blow the ring. You have to design SCFE systems with safety in mind if ring blows while opening the closure.
Adding to the list of things that can go wrong is improperly designed relief valves can plug with dry ice as co2 escaping undergoes phase transition. On a similar note, dealing with phase transitions in valves seems like a pain in the ass.
Only like to play with SCFE systems. Too involved to design one with confidence without having to teach myself way too many things.
Good question!
In Oregon, Medical Cannabis preceded approval for adult use, and you quite simply can't make the range of medical products with raw trichomes.
We supplied a gram a day of concentrate to end of life patients and up to 3 grams a day to a Alzheimers patients, which is far beyond vaporizing and demands an oral concentrate or suppository.
Even with medibles, some brothers and sisters find raw hash upsetting to their gastric system, due to the fine stalks tickling their gizzards and tract.
For adult use, what can I say amongst adults whom have clearly made their choice, other than let them speak for themselves?
Besides my own qualifying medical use for chronic pain, I've enjoyed it's use since the late 60's, albeit sparingly so as to stay employed, to improve my mental perspective and unleash my out of the box creativity when developing new processes/equipment/facilities.
The mental perspective improvement is related to the PTSD that myself and sisters caught from my flack happy father returning home from WWII, so that we are all twenty pounds in a ten pound can.
The creativity improvement was a god send at times, but alas my short term memory loss prevented me from using involved math, or keeping track of a myriad of details involved with designing and building factories, sooooo, I had to pick and choose when.
During that period, I seldom used more than just bud, which was more than adequate, but alas when I later expanded it to use for pain, I developed chronic bronchitis.
Vaporizing improved that condition, and deals with it, but didn't make it go away, so it is fortunate that I take a 200 mg troche sublingually for the bulk of my needs.
JointOperation
Active member
I don't think industrial anything will be better then homegrown small scale grower hash either way..
plus bho has more terpenes.. better effect on the high then most hash..
the problem is.. hash producers.. know that the consumer.. is an idiot half the time.. u could give someone a huge back of stalks from already blasted bho.. and half the people would think its a huge bag of hash.. the other half might know wat it is..
lol.. with bho.. its harder to CUT the product.. really ..
lol cutting, the probation mindset
Oil refinery on a budget.
Consider CO2? Don't know. That boggles the mind a bit. Hype? Yeah, lots of hype. It's super expensive and inefficient on the small scale.
But BHO? Low barriers to entry. High throughput. High potency. Great taste.
Why not large scale ice hash? Well, it would require venturing off the forums and in to the dark. Some as of yet unanswered questions about the completeness of extraction (what percentage of thc remains on the plant after extraction?) is probably important to gauge viability on an industrial scale.
Can't you?
Uh hum. You can mix it with something in a capsule, or anything else.
I'm unconvinced that there is an entirely factual basis to these claims. Has anyone had hash from the same clones you've been making BHO from? Is there a strong consumer preference over hash and if so, is there a good reason why? I'd really like to know how they compare.
Hash has been made large scale in the US before - from hops. The engineering and regulation involved in BHO and CO2 is more esoteric and expensive than anything that would occur in hash processing. Hash hardly needs to be the only or even end product of a hash plant.
Hash would be the ideal solution to the concentrates image problem, and it wouldn't be surprising to see future legislation making it so. It would be preferable to possession of recreational concentrate and meds in concentrated form banned altogether.
That's a convincing argument that if it isn't BHO it isn't possible and can't be realized. Vacuum-distilled or air-vaporized hash, oil which has never seen solvent - it would be an inferior product? Hash would be an undesirable intermediate to BHO? A hash plant would be less profitable than straight extract at low cost to consumers?
How about a plant will be worth X dollars sold into the flower market, Y dollars if sold into the hash market, and Z dollars sold into the concentrate market.
It matters not what you or I think the answer should be, the market will tell us what the value of the plant is in X Y and Z dollars.
No need for us to have any opinion of those things that qualify for X Y and Z; however BHO is not the only concentrate / solvent extract out there.
I'll belly up to the hash bar with you and pay Y dollars.
