New job, no solvent permits, biomass starting to pile up. We already do bubblehash to rosin, but are looking for higher-throughput extraction for low-grade harvested flower. We have the equipment to do solvent extraction to distillation but without solvent permits aren’t able to use ethanol or hydrocarbon. We were planning to do solvent extraction, but without a timeline for approval, we’re forced to consider the future.
I’ve been toying with the idea of MCT oil extraction to distillation, but at the very least will build plans around MCT oil extraction direct to candy formulation.
Any suggestions for other creative uses of excess biomass and/or pilot plant sized processing equipment in a legal market?
Oh I’ve always wanted to do that. In my first cannabis lab we used that to clean equipment and surfaces before doing a second wipe with alcohol. I can remember recommending it for winterization but that was a long time ago.
I suppose in this case the distillation can strip the d-limonene out before pulling the THC into a separate fraction. I guess we could even reproof the limonene by running the terps fraction, but that will take a little more experimentation due to the entourage being higher and lower than limonene.
That’s the kind of out-of-the-box thinking that gives this website a good reputation.
Are you talking about the aroma of the oil when exposed to the room, or are you saying the taste of the vapor will be an orangey variation of whatever flavor we’re targeting?
If you’ve done it before, would you recommend distilling the new limonene before using it in extraction?
I’ve never had issues with limonene flavor if you remove the limonene as an azeotrope by adding water during recovery. This allows you to recover it around the same temperature as ethanol. If using any solvent is an issue, steam can be used to distill crude from biomass, but it’s difficult to remove the water from the oil without a solvent or centrifuge.
limonene and water mixture boil at 97c, not as an azeotrope but as an immiscible mixture
Applying this to the limonene example, the amount of water required to distill 0.5 g of d-limonene can be
calculated. SEE PDF PAPER FOR FORMULA
water = 0.7 g
Thanks for the correction. It seems closer to steam distillation than an azeotropic distillation. This was about 6 years ago. Haven’t used it for anything but cleaning recently.
search my previous posts and hit me up if you are interested. I designed and operated equipment that infused 40 lbs hemp per day into MCT oil–over a couple years I produced nearly 100 gallons of infusion at 50 mg cbd/g potency for a wellness company. (Higher potencies in the 75 to 100 mg/g range are very doable too.) Check the pics on the cannabis section of my work portfolio too. Infusing ‘low grade’ material into MCT is not ideal since the process shines best for quality biomass, but if you want to get going quickly this is definitely a good route IMO. Very easy to try the process out on small scales to prove out formulations too.
Good rosin going for top dollar maybe u could figure out how to run a good squisher
@SubstituteCreature can produce a saucy rosin all day and id Dab it…and rosin done right and jar cured it fetches quiet the price and no solvent is involved
@Myrrdin one could also argue that CO2, in addition to being stupidly expensive well before “higher-throughput”, also requires Ethanol for post processing in most use cases.
Direct distillation of cannabinoids from biomass is probably not particularly viable, but has absolutely been achieved. it doesn’t require solvent, and most of the gear can be repurposed for solvent extraction/recovery once solvent IS allowed (permits are acquired).
Steam distillation is another option, or twist on “direct from biomass”. terps can be had. cannabinoids too. probably: Steam Distilled Cannabinoids
you might be better off (have an easier time/shallower learning curve) just aiming at terps. (though that doesn’t work with the low quality biomass).
@StoneD you’ve been huffing squish again haven’t you?