Hello all I’m new to the forums and I’ve been reading as much as I can but there’s so much knowledge and different techniques I figured I’d just try and ask and see what happens. Anyway I’m running 100+lbs/ month of trim through butane extraction and the hot thing right now is distillate. I do my butane runs at -80 crude is coming out between 65-80% with no crc then
I decarb the crude, winterize in 200 proof food grade ethanol, -40 is the lowest freezer I have so we leave for 24-48 hrs. Buchner funnel with 8um filter paper. Rotovap off ethanol, then run through a pope wiped film still and the best I’ve hit is 78.88% thc, 4.1cbg, 1.3 CBC, no residual solvents or heavy metals . With just the -80c butane run straight into the pope I hit 79.2% of cloudy mess… I’ve ordered a hochstrum filter and a bunch of media to try but any guidance or thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
This needs to be rewinterized. The opaqueness is from fat. You may use less ethanol on this since it’s been distilled already. If you’re still using Büchner funnels buy tighter pore paper like 1 micron or below, they should be cheap enough. As for the red idk, could be material could be parameters.
Try winterizing before you decarb.
Filter at room temp then freeze and Filter.
This!
Does anyone else run into dewaxing issues if decarb or first pass is already done?
Does anyone have data or info that wax/lipids get very small and hard to filter out once heat is applied?
The top pic is the post winterization this one is pre… the top pic tested 78.88 and the bottom one 79.2? I’m just at a loss of how I could pull 10 +% waxes and fats but I lowered my potency? I’ll definitely try winterizing before decarb on the next batch I start running but do you think I can do anything to the existing batch at the top to clean it up and up the percentage?
They get below 1 micron if decarbed before dewax, i always had to go sub micron when i did it a few times. Never again, decarb and volatiles strip in roto
Are they also testing for CBN and CBD? Whenever my stuff gets that red, I always look to my CBN numbers. And whenever by TAC is below 85% I make sure to look for other cannabinoids.
I’m switching to a filter skid instead of buchner… when I was using Buchner I used two types of filters the fast, followed by the slow by waters. This is like a 10 micron followed by a 2 micron if I remember correctly.
Hope you get it figured out soon.
Pope’s take mixed fractions like most wipers. You’re going to need to go in like five or seven times to get it all out.
So you had a harder time fully dewaxing if you decarbed first? I find the same.
If you decarb in roto isnt it the same issue??
Yes, This looks like CBN; You could have isomerized your THC while distilling? It may be helpful to share distilling parameters?
What’s your lowest vacuum reading and have you ever done a vacuum hold test on your unit to ensure you don’t have a slow leak? Slow atmosphere leak could lead to red product. Low potency after distillation is due to co-distillation or degraded product. Could be cbn or tails too, sure. Did that potency check come from a coa? Can you post the whole coa?
Make sure you use 5 to 1 ethanol to crude
Chill at least 24 hours at -40 (-80 is better)
If your disty is still cloudy run again with a smaller micron filter.
No Cbn or degraded material, pope engineer gave me a new set of parameters to work with. I’ll keep you guys posted on fresh results
Before you distill do me a favor and do a quick winterization check 1:2 product to ethanol, cover with a glove or something and throw it in a freezer. If any rafts are floating around on top you should really consider a rewinter
I decarb after ive dewaxed