I’m a fairly novice extractor (been running CLS for about 6 months) but have had great mentors and a strong background in engineering. Our team has been running in-house product successfully, making live resin diamonds and all that fun stuff. Normally our product comes out beautiful and clear.
The last month, something has changed from our grow team and our fresh frozen material runs are coming out very cloudy. We run pure n-butane or sometimes 70/30 at -60 to -70F, so our process stays at approximately -40. Soak for 5-10 min or so, and pass through a 10u filter. We normally have pristine, crystal clear oil. Now even with the filter, our product is super cloudy.
Jar on left: current cloudy runs
Jar on right: run of material sourced outside of our facility
It almost seems like we have a physical contaminant that filters out, but we can’t be 100% sure since our attempts at using 2u filter or smaller are hit or miss. We have taken the cloudy oil, mixed it with distilled water, and allowed it to settle to form 3 distinct layers, cloudy oil on top, white particulate in middle, and mostly clear water/slightly cloudy water on bottom.
The sample passes the emulsion test and based on our operating temps-I don’t think it could be a lipid.
If we run material from a different source-it comes out crystal clear, which confuses the heck out of me. Any chance it could be water? We dehydrate our solvent with a molecular sieve but who knows how effective our regeneration might be. But that is our next step to pull all the beads out and run in the oven overnight.
NurdRage has a youtube video on how to measure the effectiveness or your molecular sieves thru the amount of heat they give off. at least then u could know if its water. I know some of the terpenes specifically a-pinene make a white opaque mixture when mixed with water.
Just don’t think it could be water as we have dried the sieve in a vac oven overnight at 250F, but I was sloppy and didn’t measure the pre/post weights. We’ve also done the following as a check:
Run 1. Run our material - came out cloudy.
Run 2. Ran sourced material - came out clear.
Run 3. Ran our material -came out cloudy.
All parameters were held the same. Same exact solvent, same everything. No clean-out of column or system.
Could micronized sulfur mixed with water foliar sprayed onto the plants during veg cause this problem months later? Our finished product does not have a sulfur taste to it though. We tested a sample with copper and alcohol and did not get a blue or dark grey reaction either.
Beyond that, I’ll have to dive deeper into what foliars are being used.
We don’t have a centrifuge and wouldn’t be permitted to use one with butane.
I’m sure an appropriate 'fuge could be had. I’ve got an old Sorval RC2 that holds -15C and looks fairly well sealed, but there’s no way it’s C1D1 rated.
I get same effect when I soak the material like you did, don’t know why but every time I soaked for live it’s cloudy, if I do no more than min or 2 I get clear Crystals, other wise looks like budder
I find foliar products to be unnecessary and are just a way to potentially leave residues on the plant matter that will need to be seperated later. Are the growers feeding any synthetic plant hormones or PGR’s that could accumulate in your plants cells? Very strange that all your in house product is coming out looking like that cloudy suspension
You know the more I go back and look at some my pics, this may sound stupid AF bc I’m no where near as smart, but could the cloudy samples be just highly saturated with THC and the other not as much possibly…
If not that then did you run the exact same clone as them?
If not then this may just be a case of mistaken identity…I have plenty that start cloudy (saying was blasted correctly bci think you did) an they get more clear as the THC crashes out…bc I do have some that start cloudy but finish beautiful,
Is this live? If so then maybe yeah that’s probably it if your not running the exact clones
when i leave the buds above 62moisture and run unfrozen i get cloudy wax. my guess is moisture in the wax/butane from budz, when i freeze and use same sop i get clear , so check moisture in finished product. hope this helps
I’m having the same issue as you, my distillate looks identical to yours(cloudy one on the left in the pic) when I heat it up it goes clear, in my case I think it’s wax or terpene contamination but have never had this problem before, I’m using a 2" WFE
All operating parameters are as usual, thought is was material related but have ran several different starts.
Any ideas on how to clear it or resolve the cloudiness?
do you always winterize after a fresh frozen run? if done correctly, shouldn’t all of the fats and lipids stay locked up bc of low temps? or are you under the impression they did something wrong which is why there is fats and lipids to be winterized after? or do you find fats and lipids in fresh frozen runs maybe BC of a soak? if soaked while all is jacketed with dry ice, is there a chance fat and lipids being extracted?
I am asking anyone who may have any knowledge with regards to this cold temp and lipids being extracted as well?
