BHO clean up tech

sounds like you were wandering around with a lb of thca isolate…

a recrystalization out of pentane would have given you diamonds ahead of their time.

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the traditional response would be ethanol (aka winterization). doing something non-traditional has often been the route to breakthroughs.

:popcorn:

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why are you using silica gel?

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If I cold boil during purging of ethol in my vacuum chamber with a cold trap to catch the ethol… Will I retain the terps then?

I never said I was. I linked to a description of winterization as understood by this community to enable more effective communication with @Apothecary36 for the sake of exploring their problem.

You are commenting on a link to @Future’s winterization tutorial. (which might be the best place to ask the question)

my understanding is that he is using silica as a 3 dimensional filter-aid. which makes things go faster, and reduces filter blowouts. both of which are desirable outcomes from a production standpoint.

That said, if you really want know the intention of the original poster… you’ll need to ask the OP (@Future), not me.

Unless of course that question already came up in the winterization thread I linked to…in which case you click on the link I provided.

In terms of recovering THC from waxes the selection is of course what disolves THC very well but waxes not at all?

Answer: There are a few but the best choice is methanol really. That is the most polar and it readily desolves THC. One lab test peer reviewed for crime labs testing tested four solvents for max extraction of THC and methanol won by a bit.

I tested six solvents on just plant waxes and none of the polar solvents disolved wax very well or at all. Methanol not at all. As the polarity climbs the waxes seem to disolve better but until the hydrocarbon and conjugated hydrocarbon was used the waxes did not disolve all that well.

Here is the wax test. I do not use ethanol in my lab as for me it is a poison but ethanol would land somewhere about acetone if it was pure. Pure methanol is delivered from Amazon to me in a couple days and cheap. Pure ethanol is hella spendy owing to tax.

I now have refined enough isolate to repeat the wax test shown but now on clear isolate but have not fiddled with it yet. Methanol will drop waxes out like mad just at room temp when you disolve shatter in it by stirring or heating and it does so pretty fast. It will denature your compound and make it easy to grab most other gunk too then by filtration. I would recover in methanol then filter over a prewetted alumina (220-240 grit) column. That would clean up any extract irregardless of starting crude and recovery is nearly 100%.

I have done this for a few years now and it is fast and it works.

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some of them will stay with your material. the lighter (more volatile) ones will end up with the ethanol in your cold trap. if using an oilless pump, you’ve got yourself an ice cold terpenni.

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Haha I love it!

If you freeze the solution with different volumes of solvent, you can achieve a pretty nice removal of fats first, then reduc the solvent volume and crash out much cleaner THCa

I disagree about winterization. The earliest literature I remember finding on it years ago was in regards to the heavier triglycerides dropping out of raw vegetable oils, even when no solvent was present, and sometimes at room temperature. It is not solvent specific, and it is done “dry” (no solvent) with food oils all of the time. It’s mostly a viscosity issue we deal with in our industry. Unless you are going for more precise “fractional crystallization,” like the example above (3-stage winterization/filtration is another good example of doing it “wet.” Again, not solvent specific. It does seem specific to the concept of crystallizing/precipitating fats and oils through temperature cycling and insolubility.

Maybe consider some extra cleanup steps (some of which have been discussed in other threads here) - such as silica filtration (even full on chromatography maybe) or salt water washing the solution (glass lined stainless steel vessels, anyone?).

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You sure it’s not chucking it out in the snow for a couple of days? :wink:

I was specifically referring to how I’ve seen the term “winterization” used in the cannabis industry. Where I have almost exclusively seen a distinction made between single solvent “dewaxing” and secondary solvent “winterization”.

I don’t disagree that where possible we should harmonize our jargon with that of those that have gone before us.

I’m curious to see how the ASTM committee @Sidco_Cat mentions in the Glossary will resolve this and some of the other jargon we’ve developed.

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I’ma get butthurt if we settle on winterization being an ethanol process.:joy:

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LMAO. Then get your ass on the committee and make sure it doesn’t happen…

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See you guys in San Diego!
I’m filling the application now…

I used to set my jars on a towel that rests on a dry ice block and I would get a good clean crash of fats and no visible oil. Or so I thought…Unfortunately the fact is it would take a considerable volume of butane to selectively reject “fats” and not thc
I recently got my samples lab tested and the results were consistent with the idea that butane (non polar) will reject the thc when chilled to cryo levels.

I set aside my crude and terpene fraction
Crude: Verify | CWLIMS
Terps: Verify | CWLIMS

The crude was decarbed for production prior to testing.

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if butane at -80C doesn’t hold cannabinoids, why is everybody and their mother suggesting running the actual extractions at cryogenic temperatures?

@Pharmer_Joe you’re my gold standard for “how cold can you get your solvent”. what says you?

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I think it has to do a lot with the volume of solvent. With enough solvent the cannabinoids will stay dissolved.

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which would be what @hambread was alluding to…

Thanks for sharing!

Solubility changes with temperature. If you have a dilute sample @-80C, THCA wont crash out, but the lipids will. Extracting at cold (-50C or lower) temperatures, you need relatively more solvent but, the majority of lipids will remain with the plant materials. Also the monoterpenes arent volatile at very low temps and will be extracted more efficiently.

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So basically if I drop my Tane into second jacket column… Then let sit FULLY saturated, the fats will swell and the thca doesn’t fall out at all? Is this right? If so I’m getting 6x6 open jacket and doing 2nd stage soon( if my runs are never more than 7-14 g do you really think I would clog a 4x8 open jacket for my 2nd stage if I’m doing prior Dewaxing column for material?, Trying to save lil money if I don’t need that large 6x6, my main material column is 2x6 and my big one 2x24, I never use the 2 material columns at same time and it’s a CLS)… Maybe I can start soaking a lil longer in my material column then… It jacket too… This is 2nd stage dewax right, single solvent…

And one more about real winterizeing

But if ethol winterizeing wouldn’t be considered good then what the next best thing…I have bf and would never use on my good stuff, but my second run if I do or anything I considered lower grade I bf then use in Vapes… Just wondering if something would be considered better

And if I’m using a cls with coil and 2nd stage dewax could I potientally remove all the wax and not have to winterize for my Vapes?

I was hoping someone with more knowledge could help me out with figuring out a good way to do a single solvent dewaxing. I don’t have an inline on my extractor so was hoping I could pour the extract from the collection pot into something like a stainless nutsche filter? Would this be do able? I was hoping to do cryo-temps in something for 2-3 hours and then filter through, just not sure what would be the best way to accomplish doing a single solvent dewax outside of the extractor. Also how much solvent should I leave in collection chamber for dewaxing?

Has anyone used the inline dewaxing column from ETS on the MEP or mini? I didn’t think it was worth it, originally but now with diamonds being in such high demand, I could see it being useful if it works. I’m trying to find the best way to get the wax out for my diamond tech, so any info on what everyone is doing to dewax for diamonds is appreciated!

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