EHO Color Remediation

If you’re not particularly worried about turps + if you want to decarb, put it on a double boiler on 3/4 heat, then run a fan overtop/at it. You’ll be able to get the solvent off in 2h to 5h pending on how hot you do it.

1 Like

That won’t cause really excessive degradation due to oxygen exposure will it?

On a side note, humidity is in the high 80% until Tuesday, and a buddy suggested not extracting in such humid weather. Thoughts?

Waiting until Tuesday wouldn’t be too bad because I can order a vac chamber from Amazon and haveit Monday. Think 1 gal is sufficient for up to 2 ounces of oil?

1 Like

If you use the CRC on your extract I doubt that evaporating your solvent in the presence of oxygen is going to significantly affect the quality of your extract. I think it’s usually all the pigments that are in the extract that discolor when exposed to high heat in the presence of oxygen.

Qhat you should be concerned with is trying to preserve as many Terps as possible, and also fire safety.

You can extract in humid weather but your going to be pulling in water as you evap and if your going to winterize pouring very cold solvent creates a real explosion hazard due to the potential of static electricity being generated in a high humidity environment.

2 Likes

The very cold solvent should be well below the flash point though

1 Like

I never considered etoh explosive, highly flammable yes, but explosive? Of course, I’ve never worked with it at such low temperatures.

Since I’m working with trim and adding terps wouldn’t I be far less concerned with terpenes retention?

1 Like

It’s explosive if it’s in a vapour. if you have the fan and a well ventilated space you’ll be just fine. Ethanols pretty safe, just no Sparks at warm temps.

2 Likes

Yes I must have missed the part where you said you planning to add terpenes, and about the explosive part I was just reading the heptane extraction thread and got my wires crossed.

1 Like

You might be right about the color though, but if you do a lower temp slower evap at atmosphere you’d probably be ok. I’ve got gold etoh extract with the evap on a double boiler.
Ideally I’d run under vacuum for sure, try your pickle jar for an hour or two without anything in it, make sure it doesn’t crack.

Lol I can’t believe I didn’t even consider checking it for implosion potential like that.

So on the double boiler concept… I’m already using a countertop distiller in a similar fashion for the major ethanol recovery portion and it has a small fan built in to carry the vapors out and into the recovery vessel. What if I poured out my mostly recovered oil onto parchment and put that parchment back into the distiller using the same water buffer and dowels? Turn it on and off occasionally to keep temperature ranges a little lower. It’s a 4qt unit.

Usually I’ve been evapping on a heating pad at like 110-120f with a cheesecloth over it and a fan blowing with my oil on a parchment lining a long Pyrex baking dish that I tilt to run the oil from one side to the other to keep it thin and mobile until it sets up, but that usually takes 3 days and the color changes dramatically during that time period. That included evapping off the full 10:1 worth of ethanol though, not just as a polish evap if you will.

2 Likes

Probably just fine with that etoh distiller, but yeah if you can run under vacuum I’d recommend it :slight_smile:

It’s a small investment of like $70 for a 1 gal vac chamber I could just semi-submerge in water. I’ll probably just go that route. I’m hoping since everything else fits in a 1 gal unit that should be large enough to vac my 45 or so grams in without making a big mess. Someone mentioned under vacuum you only want to heat ethanol to 30°C somewhere, is that right?

2 Likes

Consider buying a small dehumidifier and making a ventilated box to evap your solvent in, use the dehumidifier to mitigate the amount of moisture you pick up from evaporating at atmospheric pressure.

Edit: just saw your getting a chamber, I’d say your on the right track

1 Like

I think 45c is the magic number for to prevent turp degredation. But it’s just a balance of vacuum and heat. Check a vacuum level/etooh boiling point chart and go from there. Low and slow is almost always better for this kinda thing.

Also, i feel pretty confident your jar would crack lol

5 Likes

Yea a pickle jar isnt safe as a vac chamber, I’ve heard of people cracking small mason jars by using a rotary vane pump on them and those would certainly be stronger than a pickle jar.

2 Likes

It looks like the preferred temp when evaporating ethanol under vacuum from plant secondary metabolites is 40°C or 104°F. Feels good knowing I’ve already been focused on maintaining about that temp or a bit higher.

1 Like

Check out this journal about anthocyanin removal from different berry extracts

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0263617417722252#

In the results sections they say how the anthocyanin removal by bentonite clay was most effective at HIGH contact time, and LOW temperatures. This makes sense with what we have seen with the low temperature bentonite in ethanol solution soaks. Increasing the amount of the bentonite did help as well, but was not as important a factor as the contact time and low temperatures.

3 Likes

Cold etoh with an ultrasonic probe! Boom, instant money! :smiley:

Couldn’t find anything of reasonable size to fit in my 4qt countertop alcohol distiller until I remembered I have that mini. Does anyone think it would be a bad idea to put the vessel, without a lid inside the alcohol distiller. Really do you think the water buffer or the ethanol solution will seep through or damage the gasket?

It’s either that or some thick walled 1000ml glass breakers I could put in there, but there’s that risk of breaking.

My tane chamber, without it’s lid, could work if neither of the previous options is viable. It only fits about 500ml of liquid I’d imagine though.

None of the options will allow me to process the full 2.5-3L of solution I’ll have at once though. @Dred_pirate had suggested finding a way to reduce the temperature my solution is directly exposed too during evap and this double boiler inside of my distiller concept was the solution.

1 Like

If you got a cold trap you could just pull vacuum on that bho catch and put it in a warm bath

2 Likes

I had considered that originally but couldn’t find any cold traps under a few hundred. The distiller was actually the cheapest option, or so I think :flushed::dizzy_face::astonished:

2 Likes