Decarboxylation Efficiency

Hash and Stuff Pre/Post-Processing
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41

its not 100%, and it is in fact typically a mix of d9 and thca. that makes no difference when doing a mass balance though.

i work in a production facility. when i said many of us do this everyday, i should have been more specific and said that many of us decarb thca with analytics on hand.

we HPLC our crude co2 oil once its extracted. it typically is a 1:1 thca:d9 mixture. once it is decarbed, it gets shot on the HPLC again. we mass balance the process for quality assurance reasons. there is no 25% loss associated with decarbing thca.

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42

Yeahbet:
Could you explain how you calculate the mass balance from the HPLC results.

43

yes sir.

here is an example calculation

crude oil tests at 70% TAC, 30% d9 45% thca and has a mass of 800g.
.3 * 800g = 240g d9
.45 * 800 = 360g thca = 315.7g d9 (360 * .877)
total theoretical d9 = 240g + 315.7g = 555.7g

therefore we should see 555.7g of d9 in our final product.

then for the completed oil - HPLC to get potency, and mass.
eg final oil: 617g @ 90% d9

to check our mass balance it is the same math as above, although now its only d9
.9 * 617g = 555.3g

efficiency is, as always, (actual/theoretical)

let me know how that sits!

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44

YeahBet:
Thanks. I am learning a lot from you.
Can you tell me under what conditions you decarb. If its a trade secret I understand.
Where does the 70% TAC number come from. I assume TAC means “total available cannabinoids”.
What is the remaining 25 or 30% of the crude oil ( terps ? )
Do you actually weigh the 800grams of crude before and after decarbing or just rely on the HPLC result.

45

terps, lipids, pigments will make up the rest of your crude
yes you have to weigh before and after, otherwise you won’t have the numbers which you multiply by the potency to check the mass balance

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46

atmospheric, 140c.

70% was just a number i made up for the example, although that is a realistic number for co2 crude. we get the number from the HPLC though. and @PolyC is right on the money on the impurities in your crude.

yup

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47

Awesome info. Thank you for sharing!

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48

:slight_smile: my pleasure

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49

Hey man. I’m looking into some results here and we had .86 recently decarbing prior Extraction-Winter.

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50

You’ll also evaporate some of the volatiles (terps and other compounds) in the decarb process

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51

Ideal is 0.88 as this is accounted for by the 12% molecular weight lost from the liberation of the CO2 in decarb. That being said 0.86 is a solid value I’d expect from a real world measurement. I’d validate by hplc though to make sure there is no thca present if going to distillate.

52

If going to distillate you can skip the hplc because the short path will make sure there’s no thca left well before you get to distillate.

53

You are correct. I was thinking more along the lines of wiped film but if you are seeing an efficiency of 0.86 you’ll probably be okay on a heads pass.

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