A (likely) unsolvable problem with ethanol extraction (keep them terps!)

So filled 5 kg of butane in the cls
Put her in the freezer -86C
Added methanol from extraction of 10 kg biomass vacuum evaporated at 28 C
Till 5 liter volume
Added this to the cls
Shake it for a while and i now let ot stand
Upside down and bring to 5C treu the jacket
Plan is to Take the methanol out treu the. Ball valve and leave the butane recover see Whats in the pot :grinning:

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What do you think will happen?

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Hi Goldleaf, I think you were correct in saying that, “I would guess that you are actually forming azeotrope with ethanol and water and the resulting steam is pushing out the terpenes.” I dont think that ethanol and terpenes have any hydrogen bonding that could cause an azeotrope to form unless the terps were also alcohols like linalool. The fact that the addition of more water before distillation ( according to @Jay-TL) helped separate out terps supports this thought.

I would like to throw another idea around of drying the ethanol extract solution to break the water and ethanol azeotrope and limit the steam that co-distills the terps. That way the terps say in the product (“keep them terps!”) and dont get recycled back into the reclaimed ethanol. This would have to be done with molecular sieves in a closed environment so the ethanol doesnt absorb water from the air.

Does anyone have any thoughts? All input is appreciated.

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I think any easy solution will change your processing workflow and involve safety issues/regulation that you are trying to avoid. Whether you use chromatography or LLE.

Buy or build system like IDCOs, deal with material on the front end. You’ll want to make sure the system spits out dried, deterped material. I think BRT is using one of these they modded.

I would guess the tane would snag some turps and wax?

I think iT s possible to wash everything out of the methanol

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Yeah, with enough butane for sure. Did you mean to post this on the methanol thread?

Nope i intend to do the test as claimed above and then run it again this time with No pre evaporation of the methanol
Ad water in themethanol before bringing it to ultra low temps
And see If terps are redeemed
In the butane
Washing biomass in methanol is easy and fast
Evaporation of solvents is the killer
Loosing terps allong the way
LLE with butAneis simple yeti don t know the outcome
I want to keep them terps

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Looks interesting :smiley: keep us posted

I have been playing in My Rogue lab
A lot lately with powders and butane in ultra low freezer s
With quit great results
Making me intrigued by the posibilities of butane as part of LLE
Butane is dangerous but at Cryo temps iT s less
Won t get iT c1d1 safe thats for sure

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Who has the listwith the compounds mentioned here?

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Ok so for an LLE with butane
Place cannabinoid rich methanol in freezer
Place butane in freezer
Ad the two together in A cls then Ad
Cold Brine -16C
To dillute the methanol and get the cannabinoids to jump to the butane
Question ; what other salt other than natriumcloride supresses the freezing state of water ?
Looking for a salt to go ultrafreeze
So water saturated with a salt that stays liquid at ultra freeze temps ?

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Calcium chloride will allow you to reach as low as -20c before your solution starts to freeze.

Edit: this chart says -51c at a concentration of 30% by weight.

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Better nothing that go s lower ?:fist_right:

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Idk but now im curious so ill find out lol.

Ada boy now we are getting somewhere
Calcium cloride is. Whats in the dehumidifying bags correct ?

Not sure what dehumidifier bag u mean but calcium chloride is cheap and available as a powder.

Edit: did u mean like these bags? AC_SY400

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Yep iT s a food adative
And indeed the salt in these cloth bags inside dehumidifying plastic boxes
You use in closets and storage compertments :+1:

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I have read that butane is miscible with a wider range of solvents than the other alkanes, so like many of your projects i am looking forward to the results. :slight_smile:

Maybe theres not much data on butanes miscibility with common solvents because its gas a normal temp and pressure?

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After this weekend i have answers on this one :grinning:

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