Is it possible when co-refining crude high in both THCa and plant waxes together that significant amounts of THCa will remain in the collected compound of refined waxes and cannabinoid if evaporation takes place at 150C nominal and pressure is held at one micron while the compound collects above the boiling puddle on a cold finger?
Assume for the purpose of this hypothetical question the refinement has been run four times in a row under the described conditions. Is it possible for THCa to undergo repeated phase changes when co-refining with waxes without undergoing decarboxylation in an environment of deep vacuum?
I see <LOQ results when I recover ethanol off cannabinoids in a still over 12 hrs.
If I load less, I start to see measurable THCA.
If I recall correctly, when run time dropped below 6hrs I have gotten as much as 15% acid form.
4 passes at 150C, even if you managed to keep dwell time down to 15min each time would seem unlikely (to me) to yield measurable, let alone significant THCA.
I’d run the test for you, but as you know, my machine can’t tell thc from thca.
your machine should be able to. Suggesting that you are wondering if you should believe what the machine is telling you.
@cyclopath
I don’t think it is possible either but I wanted to ask. I am trying to piece together some clues involving gas bubbles under a few different circumstances that are hard to explain. An action like decarboxylation would explain tiny gas bubbles evolving. There could be myriad reasons but I have seen past instances where this showed up too even without waxes. Trying to piece it together. I have not fiddled with absorption studies. I have no standard but even if I did my hunch is that the wax content would need special expertise with a spectrophotometer to deal with that I lack lolz. I have pondered time to time a lab study to see how many pieces my spectrophotometer would smash into on the way out the plate glass door though… I wonder …
I have no idea how an interference in absorbtion would be skewed with dissolved waxes in the solute? Anyway, that is the kind of reason I don’t jump in right away on that instrument lolz. Patience is a virtue and I have no virtues left… but there is bacon in the fridge and some oil left in the vaporizer so things aren’t all that bad.
Here are a few clues. Top photo was my friend at his place putting clear extract on heater to heat it so it ran better. He said it bubbled more than a little on the heater. Second picture was sent me after a day or so into the vessel that he poured it into. That dark red banD has not grown in thickness he said since it formed.
Final picture is hard to see but under vacuum storage those tiny bubbles seen were so abundant it turned it white. Out of storage now near the fireplace and out of vacuum most bubbles have relaxed out. Over the last few years I see examples of the gas evolving. I never saw the red set in as a layer with heated extract left out the way he showed it but the color is absolutely recognized by me. I just never put it in a travel unit and always pretty flat on a mirror or dish.
All three pictures are the same starting compound but different places now. The bubbles were seen over heat before a rapid color change and also under no heat under vacuum with no color change (at my place) within a day of refinement. Do you see the bubbles in his pic? Up in what seems to be a clear layer on top of the red? Look how yellow the bottom layer got.
I asked if the bands had grown and he said no. Then just now he just snapped this photo in different light. This is a day older than the darker photo. The red to my surprise has not diffused into the lower compound. Very weird.
Does this site award badges for weird? I qualify, right?
here you are I’m sure @Future could arrange something! Let’s see if the red does spread! Also interested if you carried any acidic canabinoids onto your coldfinger.
here you are I’m sure