How much space does 1-ton of biomass occupy?
Answer: the volume depends on a couple key factors including size of the trim or grind, the water content of the trim, and how it is packaged.
Suppliers usually supply trim in heavy duty black garbage bags at about 20-30 kg each bag. Other forms of containers include 55 gallon drums or “vacuum” sealable bags. All of these options are valid.
In terms of sampling, the barrels are most convenient and the vacuum seal bags are the least. The 55 gallon drums will typically hold 60kg or 132 lbs at 10% water weight.
So in order to warehouse a ton of material, you will need a place to store about 15 barrels or about 75 ft sq. You can stack the barrels or place them on pallet racking with a forklift and pallet for easy, modular storage.
How do I store biomass efficiently?
In terms of acreage, if you have 100 acres and grow approximately 2500 plants per acre yielding a pound per plant, you will produce approximately 250,000 lbs of material. That is 125-tons, or just over 9000 ft sq, to house it if you were not stacking.
If you use three-tier pallet racks, you can get all of that in barrels on 156′ of pallet racking; or you can do three rows of 50′, which will be around 1200 ft sq with 4′ spacing.
How much space do I need to extract a ton a day?
The schematic below shows the space and infrastructure required to extract a ton a day with CO2 extraction.
In terms of space required for extraction, you will need 800 ft sq to house the extraction machines. As is apparent, six machines are set facing each other with doors on either end. Dry, ground material enters from the left and leaves to the right. You typically need to have this room provided with exhaust vents; we provide all those specifications and drawings.
You will also need drawings for other boxes that you will conduct your grinding, dewaxing, packaging, distillation and formulations operations.
You will need around 800 ft sq of space to house CO2 and chillers. All in all you are looking at a 20′ x 40′ room with an additional 5′ on either side to house the peripherals. The adjacent schematic shows this setup. You can eliminate the need for CO2 and chillers by using an outdoor CO2 bulk tank and chiller. Ask your sales representative about this option.
How much power do I need?
You are going to need about 500 amps for the extraction facility at 208V three phase. If you had two 400 amp three phase panels, that would allow you to run the other equipment in the facility as well.
If you have a kitchen or internal drying facilities, you are going to need more power. However, you will need WAY LESS power than with ethanol processing or with other CO2 manufacturers whose equipment does not scale.
What will the output oil look like?
The oil quality from the machines is second to none. The machine will output full terpene spectrum oil that is loaded with terpenes, smells great, and has fantastic coloring.
Color can vary depending on the conditions you employ in your extraction method. If you do not over extract and you run our methods, the crude will be typically a bright yellow oil that is around 60-70% potent.
If you over extract by running the method beyond the maximum time or keep your collectors hot, you will start to pull dark amber colors.
There are several methods that we give you that will allow you to run at low pressures and low temperatures. However, your throughput will suffer greatly.
What about talent?
You will need approximately one person per shift to run those 6 machines and one person a shift to grind and dry. We recommend a third person per shift to help with overflow tasks, maintenance, cleaning, and post-processing.
A supervisor to manage the workers will only need to work one shift. The supervisor will also manage post processing and packaging activities. In terms of talent to run the machines, anyone can learn to run them and no formal education is needed.
The desired skill set for operators is as follows:
- They keep an orderly and clean facility.
- They can follow instructions.
- They have the ability to adapt instructions to any situation; you can not employ a robot.
- They need to be able to turn a wrench.
We have found that anyone with some mechanical aptitude that has an eye for keeping things clean is a good fit. If you have someone and all they can do is follow an exact instruction, we have found that they are unable to adapt.
Just like when you drive a car, you listen to an engine or hear a squeaky brake. Some don’t have the ability to hear engines or brakes; those are the kinds of people that are suited to a different operational job. That having been said, teenagers run the facility pictured here.
Can I purchase one piece at a time and then scale to 1 ton per day as cash flow increases?
Absolutely.
How do I purchase?
Typically, we get your stakeholders on the phone and have a conversation about your goals. We also give you some informational pricing. If it looks like you have your property, license, and money all in order then we recommend that you get the decision makers making decisions after scheduling a demonstration with us in San Diego, CA.
We would be happy to schedule a meeting with you today. Please give us a call at 651-600-0036 or complete the form below.
Do you guys provide leasing?
Yes. Please ask your sales representative to provide leasing information by calling 651-600-0036.
