DME extraction - low yield?

[trichsandterps]

Hello Community,

The past days I did my fourth extraction this time with DME.

I used a 2“ column with dry ice sleeve, the solvent was also cooled with di.
I chopped my buds (pictures below) and freezed them overnight in di.

I used 60g of fresh material, weighed right after cutting. And i only used nice buds. No trim no popcorn.

I did three rund each with 500ml of DME and the soak time was 15 minutes each.

On the first pass the extract had a nice yellow color, first run gave me 7.2 g

Second pass gave me 1,1 g, colored changed into brown

Third pass gave me 0.55g color was imo the best, you can see it in the pictures. The nicest yellow and i think in the third pass are less waxes than in run 1 and 2. curious about that🤔 some di felt in so the white chunk in the pic is di haha

So in total i got 8.85 g. I dont know is this good? If i think 60g wet is aprox. 30g dry.
Little over 20% but 20% crude not thc. So I am not sure if this is any good or not?
I kept the extracted material and freezed it again so I can try make an etoh extraction and see if something is left.

I also post a photo/video from the extracted bud, looks like theres still trichomes on it.

You can also see a picture of an beaker which looks like theres chalk on it. I had my crude in there while evaporating the dme. Does someone know what this is?

That was the startin material, one day after harvest.

From top to bottom, first, second, third run

These are the buds post extraction

Thats the crude 2 days after curing

So I think I wont take the DME again, in comparison to butane it pulled way more fats and wax. Unfortunately I havent wrote the parameter down when i extracted with butane.

Do you have any experiences with DME?

Thanks a lot and have a nice day!

[Graywolf]

I extracted with DME once and was similarly unimpressed.

[GasGuy-QEG]

I went to the GLG social event in Michigan yesterday. Was impressed with the knowledge in the room, and quickly noticed others were eager to share the tweeks and adjustments they’ve made to accepted SOPs to produce their versions of the perfect extract.

This is a timely thread because we’ve been getting requests for DME as an extraction solvent. We’ve even produced a couple blends of DME in hydrocarbon solvents. Can anyone shed light on this?

I found a YouTube video about DME extraction. Gotta consider the source though because it was made by a company offering disposable cans of the stuff. That said, it sure makes it look like DME has the ability to pull a lot more than Nbut.

Else, might it be good for exactly what it’s shown as: an effective second-run solvent to be used after Nbut pulls everything it can from the biomass. Is it possible that Nbut affects the plant material in one way or another to make it more receptive to DME extraction?

https://youtu.be/PaJASIlPa5c

Lastly, does it appear that the DME extractant is desirable or is it full of junk and crap that isn’t even wanted/useful?

Please share your thoughts and experiences.

[ExTek90]

@trichsandterps

i think 60g wet is aprox. 30g dry.

Cannabis is generally 70-80% water by weight when fresh. So your 60g of wet material is more like 15g of dry material. Almost 9g from 15g of dry material makes me think there’s lots of terps and waxes in your extract.

Would be worth dissolving some in ethanol and winterizing to get a read on how much in the way of undesirables you’re picking up.

[GroovyOctopusLabs]

Or send the whole thing in for testing.

[SidViscous]

I agree with @ExTek90, that’s approximately 50% dry yield. Even if the bud is testing at 25% dry, that means an absolute max of 50% potency of that extract. I suspect you have a lot of other junk in there (although it looks pretty good)

[Franklin]

I want to try pushing dme vapor through the bottom of a material column thats already been extracted with butane to see if it can extract the rest of the smell that’s usually left in the material.

[BrotanicalMatt]

Ok so to use DME as a solvent you have to know the history.

DME is the new fuel additive for Australia, UK and soon to be USA. It’s an amazing fuel.

DME you need to change you parameters to get efficient extraction. It’s a polor molecule so pulls a lot. The really good thing is it’s super volatile and will have zero solvent after extraction.

[FicklePickle]

@Franklin

with butane to see if it can extract the rest of the smell that’s usually left in the material.

Yes yes yes

That’s been bothering me a ton. No oil coming out but there sure as hell is a terpene fraction we’re not getting all of.

Folks running propane blends, do you feel like your getting more of this tail end terpene fraction?

[trichsandterps]

Once i first used butane and made a second run with dme. The butane extract always had been more gold, think dme also pulls a little chlorophyll as the extract look a little greenish right after extraction.

I am smoking the extract since two days and i really like it. I thinks its a little harsh but thats from the terps i guess. I read somewhere that low temp terps should taste as described.

[trichsandterps]

There are definitely a lot of waxes in it also a lot of terps i guess. I tried to cure it as cold and gentle as possible.

I will do a run with dried material in a few weeks then i will winterize and crystallize then i can give a proper info about the thc content

[trichsandterps]

You have any parameter ?

[trichsandterps]

Hello, as said a few weeks ago I made a run on dry material.

I used 53g dry material.

Parameters are the same as last time, everything running as cold as possible with di

This time i used Butane, i made 4 Runs

1. Run 300ml for 5 mins
2. Run 300ml for 5 mins
3. Run 300ml for 5 mins
4. Run 300ml for 5 mins

due to all the extraction look similar clear i poured them together after extraction.
let the noids crystallize for 48hours which gave me small crystalls. I was very curoius about the 4 runs because after crystallization and i had no terps ? that happened the first time that i was left with just crystals. It got me 4.56 g crystalline THC.

Then i thought i will do another run with DME because i had a liitle left, made a 5th run wit 500 ml dme for 15mins which gave me another 2.5g of crude. Unfortunately i had no more dry ice for winterizing… But i think most of the terps are in the dme crude. You also cant smell a thing on the crystals but the dme extract smells wonderful.

After i got my crystals i decarbed them in a closed vessel at 55°C for 24 hours. i was left with a nice half decarbed Oil which i filled into charts.

not the beautiest crystals but theyll do the work

So in total i got a little under 20% crystalline, unfortunately i fucked one up and spilled some on the ground.

[Neutral]

Most n-alkanes are pretty terrible solvents, meaning they don’t have a high capacity for solubilizing because they are so non-polar. Ethers are slightly better, but because it has a lone pair on the oxygen, it can interact with much more polar molecules (diethyl ether can dissolve organic salts!) so you are likely going to pull other compounds. Chlorophyll could be one, but some less polar pigments can come along as well. A lower temperature may help you in this case.

You mentioned there was a bad smell in your biomass at the end, did it smell like the DME or did it smell funny?

I ask because ethers carry a significant safety concern with them because they can react with oxygen and form explosive peroxides. This is the same mechanism that makes cooking oil/butter go rancid so you may actually be smelling that; if you are then extracting again with butane, you may actually have peroxide in your product.

A way to test for this can be simply with peroxide test strips, or with glacial acetic acid and sodium iodide (if it turns brown, you have peroxide since it’s is reducing iodide to iodine); this may be difficult with DME since it’s boiling point is so low, but if you can chill some to -40 and drop it into the test solution, that may work, or do it in your vessel.

This is why most people steer clear of oxygenated solvents (THF, dioxane, ethyl ether, and more) because the peroxide formation is a serious safety hazard.

[Indianajones420]

I have been messing around with DME cans (yeah, I know, cans are questionable, lol) for the last 4 months and I’m really enjoying it so far. I would agree with the folks saying it produces an extract with better flavor.

Been extracting super premium material, and yields have been between 32-36% on every run. A lot of trop cookies x mimosa, and several kushmints crosses, all of them are proven clones for high quality extracts. Because I’m using proven hash varieties my experience could be very different than what others have seen.

As far as parameters, I just used a deep freezer at the lowest setting, packed my tube in the lab, bagged it up, then left tube & solvent cans in the freezer overnight. I clean all the extraction equipment in my cell culture lab between each run, so it’s got zero environmental particulate.

I use press club teflon sheets to line the Pyrex pan, I’m not sure if DME will react with parchment.

Here’s the results from the first time I ran some. Those round mini slabs at the end are 22-25 grams each.
This is an Imgur gallery link, copy and paste it into your browser then remove the spaces.

Here’s a number of studies on elastomer compatibility, seems like PTFE is the only gasket material that’s listed as compatible across every study. I think this solvent is an excellent candidate for Tef-Steel gaskets, since it gets almost as cold as propane the tef-steel gaskets should have a coefficient of thermal expansion that’s closer to the closed loop itself.

I did this research because I recently purchased a 25lb tank of DME from BVV to run with my alphatek cls, and wanted to be sure that I don’t go boom. Hopefully BVV will publish updated elastomer compatibility information on their site. I already forwarded this link to Avery Benitez at BVV.

Second imgur link w/elastomer info, copy and paste then remove spaces.

[Album] DME elastomer compatibility charts

[The_Lone_Stiller]

Hey welcome @Indianajones420 nice first post. Solid info. That’s the nicest lookin dme extract I’ve ever seen. Good luck w your research!

[trichsandterps]

Hi thanks for you`re answer, always like to learn new things also behind the chemistry from the plant and solvents etc.

I read the thread again but coulndt find the part where i was mentioning that it smelled bad.
As far as i remember the smell was good, as soon as the ether was gone it the extract smelled 1:1 like the life plant.

Thanks for the advice with the peroxide stripes ! We are using them in our company so its easy to get them:)

[trichsandterps]

Hi Indianajones420,

cool first post thanks for that!

So I have some questions.

First, what are your soak times and how much solvent did you use?

When you are curing your product, how are you doing that?

I put my vacc chamber into DI and then I pull a gentle vacuum wait until i have ambient pressure and pull vacc again, until i think im done. My thinking is coming from, i already did some purging and the extracts i purged like that way havent had a lot of residuals left. Unfortunately its a pretty long time ago i have to check if i got the analyses somewhere.
Although after a few days the extract is turning from wax/liquid to solid and more crumble although I have stored it on a cold dark place. Did this happened to you to?

[Franklin]

How’s the biomass smell after extraction?

[trichsandterps]

I haven`t really smelled it, but i kept it. i will smell it once i come back to my work place then i can tell you.