Hello again! Here is the second part of my adventure last weekend.
After spending some time working on the business plan well went down stairs to look at the processing. The only part i missed here was the initial solvent extraction. They use really cold IPA (isopropyl alcohol some call it iso) for the extraction. It is cooled with dry ice so that they limit the amount of chlorophyll that gets extracted. It is then filtered with a bag filter and squashed with wine press. I wish I could have watched this part but oh well.
The extract and solvent is then filtered again with a filter funnel and loaded into a rotovap (first picture at the top). This has always been one of my favorite pieces of equipment and takes me back to my organic chemist days. Bach then we had little 1 liter rotovaps, but this was a 10 liter and really fricken cool!
After all of the solvent is pulled off in the rotovap the remaining extract is transferred to a 2 necked round bottom fitted with a thermocouple from the heating mantle and a short path distillation column. The round bottom was placed in the heating mantle and then hooked up to vacuum.
After a bit of a wait the residual IPA began to distill off. It heated a bit more when the volatile terpene started to distill. I forget the temperatures but once the thermometer in the short path hit a certain temp the pale yellow distillate started to make its way down the column to the flask. This was the point at which he switched the flask to a clean one and began collecting product. It was a pale yellow but crystal clear.
From here it has terpenes added back in for flavor. Then the distillate is measured into cartridges. I was a really neat process and was interesting to see that it can be done in a basement. I truly cannot wait to see this in a lab scaled up!
There are a few other processing methods that I would like to see. I may have found another who would be will to let me observe thier process but we will see.
The ride home was nerve racking with my alternator deciding to randomly stop working. I made it home with my car battery flat lining, but dammit I made it.
And here are a couple doggy pics! Grower has cute puppers.
This is kita who loves to play fetch
This is remmy he's a sweet boy
