-70C EtOH protocol

I’m just getting rolling with cryogenic extraction and have been running test batches to refine my methodology. I’m seeing a stunning amount of untouched trichomes even after several days of soaking at -70C. The trichomes that are partially dissolved look flattened and concave like a red blood cell. Material is cured and then dried down to crunchy fwiw. Ethanol is anhydrous and both are left to hit -70 before the soak begins.

Eons ago I saw someone that had posted a soak time vs temp protocol with extraction efficiencies and I thought that -70 still lent itself to decent efficiencies. Do I need mechanical agitation or do I simply need to go warmer?

-Eskander

More solvent at -70

1 Like

I’m at about 20:1 which seems fairly generous. What would you recommend?

-Eskander

Fuge.

1 Like


So this has soaked for 3 days and then was dropped into a panda to spin out. Not much by way of residual solvent. Spinning certainly breaks some heads off but as you can see, my dissolved percentage is probably 50% or less.

-Eskander

1 Like

If you agitate it and then spin you should peel off those goodies.

Visual is not a good parameter
Washed down flowers with 80% of cannabinoid content washed out look great if done correct including trichromes

3 Likes

Test it :slight_smile:

Quantitative > Qualitative

2 Likes

No soak. No “agitation”.

Extract in fuge thusly: It washes the cannabis and then it washes the cannabis some more

And try -40C or -20C once you figure out how to wash correctly.

Analytics are critical.

Tweed, fair point. Will do. I’m a microscopist by trade so it is easy to fall back on that.

Cyclo; It washes the cannabis and then it washes the cannabis some more or it gets sprayed with the hose again? :slight_smile:

-eskander

4 Likes

if you’re taking 3hrs to soak, and the fuge can do it better in 8min?
(that was -40C…I’ve seen 95% extraction in 3min at 0C)

Yes, you get the hose again!! (R&D hazard :shushing_face:)

if you tie it down, you can perform that trick in a panda…but I recommend something like this little screamer as soon as you can afford one…WTB: [FOUND!] Small perforated basket centrifuge. preferably jacketed. ~15lb biomass loading (although as yet it doesn’t have spray capabilities).

1 Like

Cool approach for sure. Are you doing symmetric spray to avoid the the weight bias on one side? Couldn’t tell from the pics.

FWIW, I’ve seen a large centrifuge disintegrate due to operator error and only reason he wasn’t killed was the containment held. Big ass aluminum rotor popped off the spindle since it wasn’t balanced and wasn’t secured (fucking idiot…). It hit the side wall doing 5000rpm (about 200 MPH edge speed) and carved a ragged spiral up to the lid where the impact turned it into powder. Side wall looked to be around 3/8 thick. No wonder the damn thing weighed 1000 pounds. There is some decent stuff from china that is great bang for the buck but I’d do some reinforcement. 1/4" AR500 on an angle iron frame would probably shrug off a catastrophic failure and would be a quick build.

-Eskander

1 Like