Start With a Well Developed Method
We receive many inquiries about removing THC contamination from CBD distillate via chromatography. Successfully performing chromatography at scale requires a well-developed method, diligent adherence to SOPs, and thoughtfully considered solvent recycling equipment.
Chromatography scales reliably according to well established formulas. We advise all of our potential chromatography clients to develop and optimize their method at bench top scale using either a small LPLC or HPLC depending upon the purification technology our client wishes to employ. If you are not experienced with chromatography, we would recommend hiring an experienced technical consultant to develop the method for you (or you can purchase a method from a consultant who has already developed one).
Once the pilot scale method is well developed, the method can be used to design and implement larger scale chromatography equipment. The solvent consumption, separation efficiency, yield, sorbent lifetime, and other economic factors can be modeled. You can be confident in the economics of the process before investing in equipment.
Solvent Concentration
Regular FFE and rotary evaporation systems often do not give the desired solvent recycling performance with chromatography. These systems are simple, but often solvent concentrations drift over time with these systems giving unreliable chromatography results and resulting in excess solvent waste. Ensure that you consider potential azeotropes in your mobile phase, and that you account for maintaining the proper solvent concentration in your recycled solvent.
In Conclusion
At Aptia Engineering we can help you navigate the chromatography implementation process and we can provide thoughtfully engineered solvent recovery systems that will dramatically reduce your solvent waste.