when I got to the product, it was RSO in Coconut Oil.
it tasted nasty. but it was effective.
by switching to cryo-ethanol & MCT, I achieved a better tasting, and more visually appealing product. one that wasn’t alternately liquid or solid on the shelf.
many of those same cryo-ethanol extracts could be processed as shatter, without any additional purification steps. so “crude” isn’t really a great moniker. although given the higher temp (-35 range) it may be more appropriate than on my watch.
I’ve got some CBD dog treats in front of me that were made by grinding up the dry biomass to a flour, and adding pumpkin pulp. then baked. they taste waaay better than our number one seller mentioned above.
I’m not saying that it’s wrong. It’s just not a technique I was familiar with. But, now that I’m thinking about MCT as a transfer oil I’m thinking of many applications. For instance, we are always running out of our THCA and CBDA oils because in order to dispense them we need to heat them up, slowly decarbing them. If I mix them with MCT they will flow even refrigerated. We only use them for capsules, tinctures, and topicals anyway. Two out of those three things already have MCT in them and the other won’t be a big deal to work in. I love this.
This is great. You have now idea how happy not having to cook away my work makes me!
same reason I used to add ethanol to my hydrocarbon receiver when done with recovery.
I’m winterizing next, why purge then dissolve?
Transfer solvent and Solvent Transfer (that’s what the the swap is called when you boil off the old and end up in the new).
In the OP’s case, there are regulatory hoops that might make adding MCT before the ethanol is removed a non-starter. which is a pity, because it’s the simplest solution I can see. If he’s lucky he can argue that it is a mission critical part of ensuring a consistent product and get a waiver.
The issue I had was with sugar precipitation post formulation of crude and MCT for tincture. After the formulation would return to ambient temperature, over a period varrying between days and weeks, the sugars would crash out and stick to the sidewalls and floor of the keg. It got in the way when bottling (clogging screens on our filling machine) and ensuring there was no solid particulate in anything that went to market.
I was not at the time running distillate, but my refining of our filtration SOP seemed to remove the sugars. Triple passes through AC and T5 bentonite (even seemingly with a single pass) the sugars would no longer precipitate. We nitrogen pushed through 1/8" AC and 1/2"+ T5 on 6" filter plates.
I prefer mechanical solutions to chemical ones, though the processes behind the chemical ones are fascinating. This addition to my filtration process fixed that problem for me, so I didn’t have to (or the time to) dive any deeper. Hope this helps. I do know that utilizing these two media assists with super fine (smaller than 0.2um) particulate in solution as well as color remediation. They can be sourced from @Shadownaught if it is something you are interested in experimenting with. I highly suggest it.
Interesting to note. Thanks for the info, good sir! Are you extracting in hexane or bringing your (ethanol extracted?) crude back up in hexane and recovering the solvent?
I can only imagine! What kind of filtration do you perform? And at what scale is this being performed at, if you don’t mind me asking? I can imagine the fire marshal being none to happy about 55 gallon drums of methanol and hexane en mass, though I am sure it is being undertaken by some.
That’s super helpful. I’ve been doing buchner funnel layers with media but have a new filter plate press coming today that I was going to load with various filtration media and see to what level it degummed and removed sugars mechanically. The water/brine was adds a lot of headache in terms of crude steps. Why push nitrogen versus air? Do you see an advantage through using nitrogen?
I have been using MCT similarly for transfer solvent and solvent transfer. I have been wondering if it could be used during decarb to reduce the risk of scorching and to loosen the extract to allow faster heat transfer. Is there any scientific reason you are aware of that this wouldnt work?
I’m pretty sure soybean oil manufacturing uses hexane on a scale much larger than I’ve seen in thc cannabis. Hemp boys do it big as well. And I’m sure other edible oils use hexane.
If you’re making tinctures for ingestion, then any food grade MCT should be appropriate. which brand depends on your scale.
if I only need a liter or 6 I head down to the local natural food store (whole foods is too expensive) and pick it up 946ml at a time (generally “now sports”)
I’ve also purchased by the gal off Amazon, and had folks looking to provide me with 55gal drums (never did get them to produce one though).
Dr Adorable is clearly not MCT, it doesn’t actually have “MCT” on the label, but called out the appropriate tri-glycerides in the appropriate proportions. I don’t see that information on the label anymore.
Having a GC in-house was instrumental in figuring that out, but having a good working relationship with my third party lab director was also critical.
I’m mixing MCT with various distillates and isolate then homogenizing with an industrial homogenizer to make the distillate user friendly with a defined mg/weight of active ingredient; going to try a teeny bit of polysorbate 80 for emulsification insurance
then, homogenzing the mct/distillate into gummies, hard candy lozenges per desired formulation
anything you’d suggest instead of MCT to make distillate user friendly for this application?