It can also mean you are just getting old. Got prune juice?
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@Photon_noir Iāve heard youāve had experience with the Myers vacuum pilot 15 distillation unit.
The science seems solid but not enough data regarding cannabis refining.
Any opinion would be helpful
Thanks
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I only use methanol and have for years it works so much better than ethanol in my opinion, Iāll have to give you sop a try and go straight to the sep funnel
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i think its hilarious, you didnāt get a response to this.
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Methanol is without a doubt the best choice for me. For one it is as polar as it gets ahead of water as well unlike other alcohol. Methanol also does not form an azeotrope with water and of course is a very common solvent in chromatography which I use. Liquid to liquid extractions of methanol and hexane are very clean owing to the fact methanol and hexane are immiscible. In a sense this allows the ratio of water to methanol to hit just the optimum ratio as it passes through the hexane layer. Water is then employed but in a manner consistent more with counter current seperation than pure LLE extraction. My Counter current labs helped dial in the process.
My next project slightly delayed for health reasons was to transfer my isopropyl chlorophyl removal technique to methanol now that I have a bit more knowledge. The reason for the transfer to methanol is that I can then go directly to LLE from dewax, de-chlorophyl and into an LLE funnel to strip terpene without stopping to evap solvent.
Let me tell you what I plan as an example of the utility of methanol. Did you know that at a concentration of 20% water to 80% methanol v%/v% that chlorophyll(s) are practically immiscible in it? That is the next lab. Iso displays a similar behavior and I have done this often to remove the green but it would take a whole post on itself to explain how to make it happen the way I do it now. My initial pilot test was good enough to go with a whole lab try. I plan to use a continuously cryogenically cooled buchner funnel and filtration media which will be cooled by a cryogenically cooled mix of methanol/water at the ratio above as well.
Long post because a long night lolz. In my opinion the industry was driven to use ethanol by law writers who had nothing at all to go on and latched onto the idea of so called āfood gradeā stuff only for processing. In fact this has likely hobbled the industry in states that require this. Food grade means squat and is a politically correct stand to make from idiot lawmakers. Even the damn alumina now is labelled organic food grade! IT IS SAND! Imagine any fledgling industry in which the manner of production right down to where you put your seed and where each leaf is located is so strictly regulated and enforced before any legitimate business could even hope to turn long term business profits? The goverment enforces ineffecient methods, nearly unworkable volumns of paperwork, and a gauntlet of taxation before any legitimate business has even had a chance to open doors let alone turn profit. Good lord at least let the industry begin to see long term sustained operations before you tax them into not opening!
Rant over but this business of marketing towards food grade is mostly gimmick. It makes people feel good to know the few micro grams of vapor they inhale in say downtown LA is not full of pollution, eh? Arentāt the sunsets beautiful in LA?
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Agree with everything you said. I tried you methanol sop to remove the terps , works great was so interested in trying this way to avoid having to dewax that at the time of reading was heading home but turned around just to set up the sep funnel and give it a try. People ( most that is) are always surprised when I say I use methanol and have pretty much since I first started doing distillation. You do a very good job of explaining your reading info and process for the things you do and are trying. Thanks for all the info
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I do not have direct experience with it, but I have heard of all the problems they have with cannabis resin from a well-known, trusted, and unbiased source.
I do have experience with a SBD system from BR. Itās fine when it works, but apparently the parts wear out quickly, and BR fails to honor of their warranties or provide even a modicum of good customer service. The president even wrote me a nasty email with lots of swearing when I told him they put the wrong address on the refund check (after I had already told them the correct address). Totally uncalled for.
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I run co2 and my crude comes out very nice. What are the parameters that you set the machine to?
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What kinda ratio are you using for the brine I usually just add until it wonāt dissolve anymore . I tried the methanol- heptane in the sep funnel last night I couldnāt wait til today to try so far looks like it works like a champ wonāt fully know I did it correctly until I run the crude but seems promising. Thanks for all the info looks like itās gonna save me a lot of time.
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I tried your methanol /heptane without defacing the only thing I didnāt do was ph my bribe to 4. I was wondering how important that is to the process I was not able to remove all the waxes with my brine wash, not sure what went wrong I waved til no more emulsion layer like I normally do when degumming etc. but there were a lot of waxes that remained after I rotoād I check a small sample in alcohol to see if it worked and there was a lot of waxes . Any help would be greatly appreciated Iāll keep trying either way
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this method seems to be better at removing the terps. try winterizing in etoh before hand, then try the scrub.
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I was looking for a way to do liquid separation and not have to do a winterization/dewax. Maybe I miss understood it or misread it. I have used this way for terp and water soluble removal but was hoping to combine the 2 and save a steps and days for the dewax process without having to go to cold etho extraction
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Do you decarb before extracting? If so, what is your process for doing so?
How does your distillate turn out btw? What do you typically see for potency ranges?
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Decarb in the roto and strip as many volitales as possible there shouldnāt be any potency change. I regularly hit 90%+ and it makes your runs faster
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What temperature and pressure do you run your roto at for solvent recovery and then decarb? Iām just curious. I turned it up to supply additional heat transfer during recovery. Iām not sure if decarb occurs under vacuum or more specifically without O2. Doing additional steps in the rotovap makes a lot of sense to me. Rotos canāt go to high vacuum usually but they can go to higher temps if you use oil instead of distilled water in the bath. Thereās a lot to consider with oneās choice of oil though. I couldnāt find an oil that would work.
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Usually after around 60c I empty all alcohol and then wonāt keep anything else that comes out I use it for glass cleaning or adding to cold traps itās loaded with terps and donāt want to compound it for prior runs. After that step I turn the temp to 145c ad itās usually done decarbing by the time it reaches that temp and as much Vac as possible I unhook my controller and run pump straight to roto
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Duratherm S is the fluid/oil I have been using for years easily goes to to 165c with no degradation
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In my oil research I talked to some folks who pointed out that thereās a temperature range where it wonāt degrade appreciably, but also a heat transfer flux (joules/cm^2 per second) that you should stay below. I did the math on my rotovap heating element and found out I was over. the flux depends on the surface area of the coil so I didnāt know how much I should worry if at all so I put the project on hold.
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I have been using the same duratherm in my 20l roto for well over a year I just top it off every other month or so
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