Hello everyone, I have a question about a reaction that I’m have while doing Liquid phase extraction. The material I’m working on now is first pass distillate mixed 2:1 heptane : distillate . Then I do a 3 part saline wash 4,9,7 in my 6L separator funnel. The 4 PH wash went as normal , then I switched to the 9 PH bucket and the first two washed went normal . But then on the third wash it got all foamy on me . Anyone ever experience this ?
Emulsion
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It’s just weird that sometimes it happens and other times no . Still new to this form of extraction/ redemption
Any reason why it takes for ever to separate back into saline / heptane solution? Foamy emulsion doesn’t want to go away
Yes this is a 3 part saline wash (brine wash) I’m doing on some frist pass distillate. I’m just having a weird foaming reaction that wont go away on my PH 9 wash . 4 PH and 7 PH seem normal . I’m doing a pesticide redemption , I would love if @Photon_noir would hit me with some knowledge.
In my experience you need more salt added to the water, i could be wrong but my layers would take forever sometimes and i just added more salt til no more would dissolve and it fixed my problem
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Thx for the feedback guys , I think you are right about not enough salt.
I don’t think it’s “not enough salt” but rather salt will remedy your current situation.
I haven’t done too many ph adjustments but the time I did I had the same thing happen. I think you need to neutralize better in between your washes. I’m interested in hearing an expert opinion though
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You are right. There is a few other issues involved to prevent.
Ganted no expert here. But in my experience, ph irrelevant, heavy saline solutions smash emulsions and allow them to dissolve, and break up into the polar liquid alot easier. I salt all my washes, high, low, and neutral. Plus i let my initial, and final pulls sit at least 5 hours to settle. Settling helps with emulsions too… Tell me how to optimize better please @Apothecary36 , and @BrotanicalMatt . I get pretty decent results but would love to hear some more from the pro’s!
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I need to know more about your oil. I can help as much as I can.
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what type of particulars can i inform you of pertaining to said oil? I mostly work with hydrocarbon, and etoh crude. Thanks!
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I don’t know what you mean by "first two “washed normal, nor ANY of the particulars about what compounds were used! Just saying “acid” “salt” “pH 4” (sic) means precious little squat to anyone who really understands this stuff, though maybe that’s a case where knowledge makes me “dumber”. The others’ pointers seem reasonable, fwiw. It is true, for example, that this is a very big emulsion (aka " colloidal suspension”) , also true that sodium citrate (a salt of sodium alkali of some sort and citric acid) is used to make emulsions work, and also true that this emulsion could happen due to nothing obvious as easily as it could happen due to saponification of fatty acids or triglycerides (i.e. making soap) in the disty from exposing it to heat and strong alkali… wait, I dunno if that was mentioned, but hopefully you get my point. That is: I begin to lose my cognitive faculties on my 3rd day without sleep. Good luck!
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Can you please explain what you mean by neutralizing better in between washes ? I am following a SOP for redemption of a pesticide . I’m pretty now to L2L and just want to make sure I’m going about the process correctly
I believe just several washes of ph 7 water in between. I’m not an expert
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PH is only in aqueous solutions. Think of the oil as “mimicking” the PH of the solution. If you don’t neutralize between/after this will lead to isomerization of cannabinoids in heated environments - via distillation.