I do not have time to hold you hand through this, but it is cheaper to produce mainly because the cost of starting material (hemp) and the scalability of the processes.
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Again THC only requires distillation, hemp produces 6-12% biomass. THC trim hits higher numbers in most cases. They cost the same to grow, I can get THC trim for the same as CBD biomass. The market may be different where you but the prices are much to equivalent for conversion to be worthwhile unless you have very high yields which none of the isomerization methods mentioned display. You have to then add cost of reagents and added equipment.
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Because china. Because purity and control. Because a wiped film is a larger investment than a reactor/roto combo. Because crude droughts, decarb and devol. Because pesticides. Because international flexibility. Because pre processing. Because market demand for clariry. Because you can set up a consistent formula.
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Any CBD to THC reaction will at very least require distillation but most use chromatography to separate reactant mixture.
Hemp farms use larger amounts of pesticides and see the same heavy metal contamination as THC.
For any facility of decent size and efficiency, biomass costs basically dominate everything else. At a certain point dropping biomass even a small partial amount can bring costs down better than even halving your production cost.
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Guys please stay on topic. I really could care less how cost effective it is, I just want some THC.
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Same here. I need some THC to run an oxidation and an acetylation on.
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How much thc You folks Need ?
How much thc do You Need ?
Not much. Probably going to end up isomerizing 0.5 grams.
Where are You located ?
Pennsylvania
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Regarding the first method of isomerization on the website:
Dissolve 1g of CBD in 10ml 0.005molar H2SO4 in glacial acetic acid.
Let solution stand at room temperature.
After 3 hours CBD has been converted into 52% delta-9-THC and 2% delta-8-THC.
After 3 days a mixture of 15% delta-9-THC, 54% delta-8-THC, 10% delta-8-iso-THC and 10% CBD has formed.
Work up:
Pour into water (100ml or more) and add cautiously with stirring (foaming!) enough sodium bicarbonate (15g should do) to raise the pH above 7. Extract with petrol ether, wash with water, evaporate solvent to get mixture of starting CBD and predominantly delta-9- or delta-8-THC with some other byproducts depending on the reaction time.
Do you think I can replace the petroleum ether with heptane? This is apparently 100% heptane: https://www.amazon.com/Bestine-Solvent-Thinner-Rubber-Cement/dp/B004O7HM38/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=heptane&qid=1555864175&s=gateway&sr=8-1
I am thinking this would be an easier method of isomerization.
Thanks.
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Switch it to hexane or ethyl acetate, unless you know the solubility of THC in heptane. Also, I would reflux this reaction so you aren’t waiting days for a garbage yield. If you have a pressure tube I would try that out too.
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Heptane should be fine. Most nonpolar hydrocarbons with suitable boiling points should work.
I’ve tried this isomerization with H2SO4 in acetic acid successfully, and used a low boiling white spirit for the extraction, since I had it on hand.
The isomerisations using Lewis acids like zinc chloride are also interesting, since they can produce higher THC yields than H2SO4.
I found a few procedures/patents online. The best one I found is patent DE10106024B4.
[quote] A solution of 5 g of cannabidiol in 1,600 ml of dichloroethane, with 10 g of zinc chloride is boiled for 24 hours under reflux. After the reaction is stopped with the addition of 500 ml of water. contains the product formed after distilling off the solvent residue
| cannabidiol | 2.87% |
|---|---|
| Iso-tetrahydrocannabinol | 5.75% |
| Δ 8 -tetrahydrocannabinol | 5.01% |
| dronabinol | 86.37% |
| [/quote] | |
| A yield of 86.37% delta 9 THC is by far the best I could find in any procedure. | |
| It has a few drawbacks, however: One needs a ton of dichloroethane, which is a known mutagen and hard to obtain. Also, the reaction mixture needs to be refluxed for 24h. | |
| I wonder if the dichloroethane is in fact needed, or if it can be substituted for another hydrocarbon. | |
| Potentially, one could just use a non-toxic mix of hydrocarbons like white spirit with a boiling range of about 70-100°C, boil/distill off anything that boils below 84 °C (the boiling point of dichloroethane) and use the remaining solvent to carry out the reaction. But I have no idea if that will work, and one still needs to reflux a flammable liquid for 24h. |
There are also procedures which use molecular sieves and heptane, also under reflux, e.g. in patent US8324408B2.
They form significantly more delta 8 THC, however.
For now, I’ll just stick with the acetic acid/H2SO4 isomerization.
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Out of curiosity, does the THC mix/cannabinoid mix you isolate oxidize to form any colored compounds? The proposed oxygenated compounds that progress to CBN that have been isolated are all colorless compounds.
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Interesting… Thanks for your reply
I have a question out of curiosity!
In this:
Post, it is stated that a molar solution of cbd and phosphoric acid can create a batch of d8/9. They talk about using clays but do not specify how much.
Would solvent be necessary in this reaction?
So those are 2 different approaches. The first is using activated acidic clays, neat. The hot distillate is stirred with clay in the still pot. The reaction proceeds to completion and the d8/d9 mix is distilled in good purity (we see 10/1).
The second method uses an acid or Lewis acid in solvent to effect the isomerization. There are multiple procedures. But solvent is used.
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Hey, just by the way guys, if you can covert hemp to thc it’s 100% legal under federal law.
(b) Tetrahydrocannabinol.–Schedule I, as set forth in section
202(c) of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 812(c)), is amended
in subsection (c)(17) by inserting after ``Tetrahydrocannabinols’’ the
following: ``, except for tetrahydrocannabinols in hemp (as defined
under section 297A of the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946)‘’.
If the cbd comes from hemp and the thc comes from that then the thc came from hemp. 100% legal and protected by the federal government.
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