Introducing Refine Cannabis Extract - RxCE

Hey @Lincoln20XX,

Here’s the results of a quick test for maximizing yield on solvent extraction. I ran four 2oz extractions. The first, ‘Grn’ was the control case that was straight away boiled down to oil (RSO) to establish a maximum yield. The second, ‘Blu’, was your approach. The third and fourth I tried something new. The 99% ISO was heated to 150f then used for a 30 second and 1 minute soak. So here are the results:

Edited for clarity…

Label   Alc   Time   Washes   Salt   Yield   Waxes
Grn     99%   10m      1        N     6.5g   N/A
Blu     91%   5min     3        Y     6.0g   1.3g
Red     99%   30s    1@150f     Y     4.6g   0.8g
YlW     99%   1min   1@150f     Y     4.8g*  0.9g

*noting a small transfer loss, maybe 0.1g spilled…

Couple points. I used 91% at room temp with ‘Blu’ knowing this would penetrate the plant just a bit. Reason being, I expect 91% to be used on a regular basis by home users. 91% is what you recover out of a still/water distiller. Same rules apply to 200 proof vs 190 proof ethanol.
99% will have to be an ongoing new purchase for every extraction. You don’t want to dry out ISO thru refluxing as you risk generating peroxides. Over time, the alcohol evaporates and can leave peroxide crystals. These crystals are unstable, IE explosive. There are instances where 99% refluxed ISO stored long term has formed crystals and exploded when disturbed. Water disrupts the whole peroxide issue, so it is safe to recover 91% ISO. It’s removing the 9% water to make 99% ISO that it becomes vulnerable to peroxides.

Visually comparing the ‘Blu’ wash to the others showed it to be marginally greener, so using 91% quickly works well. There was very little ‘greenies’ pulled using 91% this way. The ‘Red’ and ‘Ylw’ tests cases were interesting, but yielded less than I had hoped for. The ISO was initially heated to 150f then poured over the plant for a single wash. After winterization, I collected the waxes by rehydrating them in ISO. This rehydrated wax solution produced an amazing wax bloom before being boiled it down for measurement. Got pics of everything if you want to see any of it.

So, there it is in numbers. The ‘Blu’ test weight + the measured waxes shows a higher total weight than the control case. The control case was a single wash boiled down so it contains it’s share of waxes.

You can ignore the the ‘Salt’ column. It indicates the use of salt to break the emulsion during distillation. It prevents oil losses with water distillation.

Your thoughts?

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