Using a liquor distiller to remove alcohol

redivider

Well-Known Member
Alright so I am moving ahead with a project to start a 20 plant legal grow where I live now.

Laws are a bit crazy here - you cannot sell flowers. You need to have a system in place to track every flower to the plant from harvest to what particular batch of extract you are making. I have that down I worked with serialized components for autoparts and had a 4.000 vehicle fleet I had to oversee maintenance and aftermarket for- the approach is not too dissimilar to tracking which part went into which of the 4.000 trucks ... so that's not the scary bit.

that said I have to make extracts. While procuring online I found several closed loop supercritical C02 systems that will allow me to process the amount, and they are not crazy expensive. but I cannot purchase one of those until the business actually takes off.

Industrial 95% alcohol is readily available as a cleaner in a lot of places - so what I am thinking is doing quick wash extracts. But I don't want to lose any alcohol and have to keep buying it.

What I am thinking is putting the alcohol mixture into pyrex dishes, placing those inside a distiller, and warming it up a bit, the alcohol distills through the coil, cools and falls in a receptacle outside ready for re-use.

all of this will be done inside a 10 metre squared room with a sparkless extraction fan pumping

Pyrex dishes are flat on the bottom so I can scrape off the extract.

I have found a locally made distiller that uses a pressure cooker, a side pan and some copper tubing. similar to this: https://www.amazon.com/Distiller-Moonshine-Alcohol-Stainless-Thumper/dp/B00XZ381F0/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1520958894&sr=8-3&keywords=distiller

Actually it's an exact copy of this, just made locally.

so the idea is to make a small stand so the pyrex dish 'floats' inside this. have the distiller sit on a scientific grade hotplate (around $150 for the small one) - and have that warm the distiller slowly.

this done inside a 18 cubic meter room (short of 9metres square and 2.5 metres high) room with a 50cfm extractor fan, means every ~12 minutes the air inside the room is replaced.... gotta watch out for those fumes.....

anybody done anything like this? I don't want to use a rotovap because the round bottom on those it is hard to remove everything. am I just looking to cause a huge explosion and blow my hands off?

I mean the scientific hotplate/distiller pressure cooker thing is so there is no spark/fire... the thing is rated for working with flamables..... the pressure cooker/distiller is sealed so the fumes cannot get out...... once the evaporated alcohol reaches the coil it condenses to liquid and falls into a secondary receptacle...

watcha think? will I blow my hands off or is this something doable?
 

natureboygrower

Well-Known Member
Sounds like you've done a lot of research on your potential set up.As somewhat new to extracts i'll let the more seasoned/experienced guys give their advice.Just wanted to point out that i've been placing my round bottom flask in the freezer for 15-30 minutes before trying to fish my concentrate out.Works like a charm.A little stir with a scoopula pulls it out in one piece.
 

Fadedawg

Well-Known Member
A still will work, but will also partially decarboxylate your concentrate, if that is an issue. We made our own still, but used hot oil bath to evenly heat it. Megahome still also makes an alcohol still.
 

redivider

Well-Known Member
A still will work, but will also partially decarboxylate your concentrate, if that is an issue. We made our own still, but used hot oil bath to evenly heat it. Megahome still also makes an alcohol still.
I had not considered that.

but I think I'm going to go for the still set up with the science room hot plate... I can control the temp pretty accurately and see what happens.

Note- I have never made quick wash extracts I have no idea what I am doing.

I found some info that says using really cold alcohol and frozen buds works best.... I'll give it a try in a few weeks when the plants are ready....
 

Space_cadet

Well-Known Member
Research Soxhlet extractor's if you wanna save on solvents and time needed to distill off solvents after your extractions. Basically using a Soxhlet extractor you can use a 1L of sovlent to extract large amounts of herb (lbs/kg). You could maybe get a huge one built out of stainless steel maybe.
 
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