Q: What products and services does bizzybee LLC provide?
A: We specialize in manufacturing our custom hydrocarbon and ethanol extraction equipment, engineered for safety and functionality, for small batch and large scale extraction. We are also distributors for various types of post processing and environmental extraction equipment. We also provide training, consulting, and large scale system builds.
Q: What solvents can be used in a beest?
A: Hydrocarbon solvents (butane, isobutane, propane) or 190+ proof ethanol. Hydrocarbon and ethanol systems use the same hardware with a different SOP.
Q: Are all beest systems custom built or are there standard models?
A: We create custom builds for clients’ desired extraction production rate, end product, environmental needs, extraction style, etc. We also have several standard model designs to perform specific quantities of a desired extract. Example: 100 lb of material into crude a day, or 50 lb of material into shatter a shift, or 5 lb batch size runs of live resin, etc.
Q: Are beest systems certified? Are they ASME certified?
A: We have a third party engineer peer review report for our systems. Each individual system has a report written for its specific design and layout and is given a serial number. Generic reports are available upon purchase while system specific reports have a varied lead time. All of our vessels with an inner diameter larger than 6” are made in an ASME fabrication shop.
Q: Does bizzybee have jacketed columns? Jacketed tanks?
A: All of our columns are jacketed. We have four different column inner diameters and two different lengths of each sized column. We also carry non-jacketed, jacketed, and double jacketed tanks of various sizes.
Q: How is liquid CO2 used in bizzybee systems, and what are the benefits?
A: Liquid CO2 is used as a refrigerant in the jackets of the columns. This rapidly decreases the temperature of solvent and/or material to -60F to -90F. CO2 in the solvent column jackets also performs passive recovery at rates comparable or surpassing recovery pumps.
Q: What is the difference between passive recovery and active recovery?
A: Solvent recovery refers to the evaporation and condensation of the solvent out of the extracted solution, after an extraction has been performed, and while still inside of a closed loop system. “Active recovery” uses solvent recovery pumps to mechanically compress the solvent vapors from one vessel to another. “Passive recovery” uses thermodynamics to perform the solvent recovery; heating and cooling of the vessels creates the evaporation and condensation of the solvent liquid and vapor without a mechanical unit.
Q: What’s the difference between using liquid CO2 to cool versus using a chiller?
A: Liquid CO2 performs rapid cooling of solvent and material, as well as passive recovery. This requires large dewars to be delivered to your location and swapped out regularly. Costs are low initially but compound over time. Chillers notoriously do not get cold enough to hold an ideal working temperature during extraction and are limited to their electrical wattage output. A powerful chiller requires higher upfront costs and three-phase electrical power, but does not require the same ongoing financial commitment CO2 demands. Either choice is acceptable; we will help you determine which is best for your application.
Q: Does bizzybee offer training and consulting?
A: We invite new clients to our shop for a demo and initial training session on our equipment, called a “demo/design consultation”. We offer on site system installs and training for a daily rate. We can provide training from small scale extraction techniques to large scale full industrial system build outs.
Q: How are bizzybee systems expandable and upgradable?
A: Our systems can scaled up by increasing column sizes or expanded out by adding more columns, racks, and tanks. Systems can be single rack setups, where every column is on one rack, or multi rack setups, comprised of two or more racks working together.
Q: How much hydrocarbon solvent is lost during each extraction?
A: When extracting dry material, columns are heated after the extraction to recover solvent remaining in the material, which minimizes solvent loss and increases safety when it is time to empty material columns. When extracting wet material, columns are frozen and some solvent (1-2 lb) is lost each run.
Q: How is residual solvent removed from the material after the extraction?
A: For hydrocarbon, the material columns are heated through the jacket to evaporate the liquid solvent out of the column as a vapor and condense it back into the solvent columns. For ethanol, nitrogen vapor is pushed over the material column to force liquid out of the material. The remaining liquid can be spun out with a simple spin drier or a centrifuge.
Q: What other ancillary parts are needed to operate a beest outside of what is included in the system purchase?
A: Beests come with all the hoses, adapters, thermocouples, and small parts to run. Outside of that: a constant supply of liquid CO2 dewars, small nitrogen vapor tanks, vacuum ovens and vacuum pumps sufficient to the scale of production, distillation equipment (if desired), a C1D1 extraction environment, and various chillers and heaters. We can provide leads and estimates for anything you need.
Q: What is your system’s footprint?
A: Hex racks are 3’ by 3.5’ by up to 7’. Quad racks are 3’ x 2.5’ x 7’. Multiple racks can be used together at the same time.
Q: Are Beest systems Certified?
A: We work with a 3rd party engineering firm that created the engineer peer review and the certificates of conformance for each of our systems. The firm has engineer stamps in each legal state and has written a comprehensive report indicating that all the parts we use are compliant to all pressure vessel, piping, and fire safety regulations. Each system is photographed and a Certificate of Conformance is written for each specific system and the location that system will be operating at.
