I am curious, how many labs have incorporated an isolation SOP into their production? If you are running an isolation procedure are you running it inline(hydrocarbon)?
I feel like isolation is the best method for a repeatable consistent product… but I’d love to hear what other people think. I know we have some real hash connisuers here.
Yes indeed, we have procedures for THCA, THC, CBDA, CBD isolates. All isolates can be made with either hydrocarbon or ethanol extract.
Are you relying more on chromatography or crystalization and physical separation? Are you isolating a majority inline with extraction? I’m really just curious and not looking for specifics.
Crystallization only, not in line!
Edit: well, technically our THC isolate just comes from decarbing THCA, so no crystallization there.
Cold crash as of recently. Running cured material so not getting the best isolate.
*Post extraction. Not inline.
Most labs I’ve seen equipped with a stainless collection vessel for hydrocarbon extraction are creating isolate. The only reason they wouldn’t would be doing so is due to incompetence from the user (which is usually an extension of incompetence from management for hiring).
Virtually no one wants to deal with chromatography for single cannabinoid isolation, either due to up-front cost/maintenance or lack of know-how. Preparative HPLC requires an experienced scientist (ideally), and most shop owners scoff at the idea of hiring a professional asking for a good wage. It’s a sad state of the industry and the market for wholesale products is abysmally low in price. My previous employer decided to hire baristas to run the lab once I left lol.
We’re a commodity/API focused business so 100% crystallization for us. Everything is inline. Weed goes in, agricultural waste and isolate come out.
If we could crystallize THC directly we would, but of course that’s not presently viable.
Well they did say they had experience with extraction. Just so happened to be coffee.
I assume you have a technical process. Are you just bleaching in crc, or are you using multiple crc columns for RPLC, and wash cycles? Is your crystalization active? Do you use mixers?
Gonna be honest. Haven’t seen many labs that have good isolate sops, save for a few.
I’m seeing more labs with the XD 6x36 isolator. Most are under utilized or not used at all. Seen a legal lab w/ one still making yellow pentane isolate.
Definitely haven’t seen any large scale bho isolators in licensed yet.
With the ideal saturation for clean white isolate, I feel like 6x36 is closer to 1.5-2kg. And that’s not a lot for the guys focusing this. I’ve also crashed way more (5kg) with a more saturated solution but it’s not as pure. and bro seeing it instantly crash like the evolved isolator is not good in the XD isolator.
Mind sharing what the solvent to extract ratio is optimal? I assume that is part of the reason my isolations are not as clean as they could be.
It’s not really that important if you have control over your process. The gas needs to be “well saturated”. Probably get away with like 25/75% cannabinoid/gas ratio, up to much higher. It’s not the only step in isolation however. You need to have better than average understanding of chromatography and how to use your CRC.
yep inline after extraction it goes right over to the cold crash columns, pour out the terps with lots of solvent left and let it sit in the -80 overnight to get any residual thca, D9, and minors to congeal on the bottom, nice runny terps
I think all these pentane diamonds going around have a really funny taste.
I think there is too much extraction manipulation going on leading to a bunch of mids. So much of the oil this year at MJBizCon tasted like shit
This is really becoming a medicine and not a social experience. I equate it to drinking NyQuil.
Are you doing 2 crashes?
You should be
Since the first crash has lots of impurities in it I usually am not trying to get “high purity” straight out of the gate
The first crash is generally for me a quick crash just to get isolate to work with on the second crash
The second crash is where you make your white isolate
Washing your crashes good is also key to getting a nice white isolate if you have any ML solution left over on the isolate itll cause oxidation and discoloration
The above picture is a single active crash. Weed in, that out.
Live resin? Looks epic btw
I’ve never had a Pentane diamond taste right, even made with good starting material
This is my homie dabbindeli run on a machine he built. But it was cured material.
No, no, no, this isn’t a relevant question for what we’re doing, yes.
We rely on thermophysical manipulations, not chromatography.
Though my answers here could probably be considered close to trolling because we aren’t doing any of our processes with methods or equipment that looks even remotely close to what everyone else here is working with.
But crystallization is crystallization, for the most part. It’s all solubility manipulation, whether that’s through temperature, energy input, chemical wizardry, or anything else.
