Lipid infusion with hydrocarbon material columns

just throwing this out there

I haven’t run hydrocarbon closed-loop systems. But from what I can tell, you could easily retrofit your setups to perform oil (lipid) infusions. Need a pump, bottom drain feed tank, and some containers to collect the infusion coming out the top of your material columns. (Reactor for decarb is best but also not hard to improvise.)

Those of you running CLS’s often have access to great flower which will also make the best infusions for edibles, topicals, H2O soluble nanoemulsions–everything but tapeable concentrates. Much easier than having to use CRC, vac ovens, SPDs and so on.

Tryna figure out if anyone wants your system?

Maybe you should try and keep it all in one thread?

If you goal is to spread the information that lipid infusion is a viable option for some people (I agree btw) it would be more productive to probably keep it all in one place for ease of use instead of creating new topics.

If you’re tryna slang your equipment you may eventually get a little flack for spamming equipment sales in seperate threads instead of just bumping the original topic by commenting on it

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Can’t say I’m quite trying to slang equipment… since I don’t work for my previous company any longer.

But yes I’m at least trying to slang the knowledge. Response here is generally kind of muted… so I’m happy to take flack or praise. At this point I’m mainly trying to keep the pot stirred.

Either way, thanks for the support and advice.

Seems labor intensive for a product that is easier to consistently formulate with an extract.

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you don’t NEED a pump.

you could use N2.

you could also use your hydrocarbon recovery pump to move that N2 (or just air if you feel like adding O2 for some reason) around (I see no required plumbing changes). (use your CRC as a depth filter).

essentially zero retrofit except for switching the column jackets over to hot rather than Vac or Cold.

turn up the heat in the “evaporator”. might have to add agitation. pumping “hot vapor” pulled from the top back in from the bottom of the evaporator/collection would suffice. most CLS don’t have this function. they should.

the ability to run the same solvent through multiple columns sequentially would be helpful for implementing your most efficient process.

Both my last hydrocarbon rigs had that for ~ a week.

deleted it (mid flight) in favor of a hot vapor push on the bottom of my columns to avoid another threat to use a heat gun on the hash clog at the bottom of said column(s).

Bonus? It also added bottom flood (bi-directional flow). So no more clogs.

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I thought we just agreed to swap solvents in the CLS?

you’ve moved to a jacketed reactor on me?!?

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Talking hot gas extraction? Sure it works to varying degree for cannabinoids but even more care is needed with terpenes and other phytochemicals because of sensitivity to oxidation. (even if you’re pumping N2 I think you would have to ensure that O2 adsorbed to the biomass is removed before cranking temp and extracting)

Extracting with oils on the other hand makes it much easier to preserve full spec phytochemicals since a final step decarb can be run at low temps/inert environment.

I think we are both getting at is any number of liquid/gaseous solvents can be pushed through CLS material columns. And pushing through several columns simultaneously can lead to increased efficiencies & capacity

Benefit of liquid solvents would be that it’s easy to collect and hold the column effluent as several fractions of decreasing potency so you can effect a countercurrent extraction with a single material column (i.e. reload column and then push your collected fractions back in order of decreasing potency)

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No. (Yes, but over here: Alternate solvent extraction)

Suggesting using the compressor already on most cls (recovery pump) to move gas (N2 or air).

Using said gas to move lipid around, and agitate reactor during decarb.

Aka running “oil” in an unmodified oil rig (ok, modified to blow hot smoke up its ass, but they should all have that functionality)

Which was the topic until you switched to using a stirred pot… :rofl::joy::rofl:

Yep, I had that functionally (same solvent serially over multiple columns) for about a week. It’s not a hard add to most multi-column rigs. It IS pretty hard for the operator to keep track of in my experience.

You’d need an extra honey pot or three to effect said counter current methodology on most single column rigs

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Lol put some distillate in mct. Voila…

Idk anyone who actually wants terps (especially after decarb) in there edibles.

If they do, decarb some bho, add to mct. Woohooo

Maybe I’m overlooking a segment of the market…Not trying to be a butthole or anything, just my 2cents

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When you have flower, and the AHJ doesn’t consider Vegetable oil a solvent…(and calls CO2 a hydrocarbon).

See Alternate solvent extraction

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hey no worries! Definitely has been an uphill battle to get people to come around to this.

Rationale behind my post here was to say, ‘hey, CLS operators have nearly all the tools they need to try this process out.’ Surely if you are already making BHO then you can retain terps, etc. My sense is you can make products that retain terps (for edibles, topicals) just as easily without the C1D1.

Terps decarbed in oil solutions can be excellent, especially when care is taken with low temps & inert environment. Definitely the case with quality rec flower. The thc infusions I’ve made with rec flower taste so good that I tell myself… I wish I could take more but I will be toooo high…

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Dude we should try making HONEY oil in that CLS…

(Maybe I’ll try it in my espresso machine first?)

You can always add steam distilled terps.

Ok! Right on, I could see this increasing infusion/extraction rates a good bit. My only worry pushing gas & carrier oil through material column would be channeling.

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If you start charging with n2 at a fairly low psi (10psi) and then up the psi (30-60psi), once your Column is full (and during your soak) I’m comfortable to say you wouldn’t get channeling. At least I don’t with butane…I run kinda this same way, just slightly higher psi once I’m pushing through my crc.

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Awesome! Yeah that makes sense. Happy to say I learned a thing or two about CLS here :blush:

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Same page!

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It’s interesting that there’s at least a few companies here just decarbing and putting into edibles. At least one even advertises the strain they put in.

Sounds unappealing to me.

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I’m still looking for any evidence that terps survive the gut and first pass metabolism to retain any physiological activity in the blood stream after ingestion (versus inhalation).

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I have no idea how well they do, but here’s a rec company that’s making strain specific gummies with rosin. (My argument of course would be easier to process/formulate with infusions.)