My Potential Purification Lab

Higher purity = higher yields.

There comes a point when contaminants and other cannabinoids prevent crystallization.

1 Like

Chilled Ethanol Extraction

Rotovap and Decarb

Distill

Isolate

Thatā€™s all it takes, there is no need for chromatography for CBD isolate

These threads always read to me as someone who just wants to skip a certain step(usually distillation) due to cost or skill involved. People turn to chromatography as a magic bullet without realizing the huge amounts of solvents involved, expensive mediaā€™s, and long recovery times for solvent management .

Itā€™s like hey guys, I get the process yā€™all are using but Iā€™m too cheap to pull it off. Whatā€™s a way I can do what yā€™all do but cheaper and easier then you are currently? Isnā€™t that what business is all about?

6 Likes

Possible and Profitable are two very different things. Wouldnā€™t everyone just be isolating from crude if it was profitable or do you think everyone just like wasting time and money?

I donā€™t think itā€™s stupid at all. I for a long time have been looking into direct crystallization from ā€œcrudeā€ ā€“ but the crude would have to be well prepared. After all, some people are turning out crude with main cannabinoid in the 80s, which is in line with the lower quality distillate going around. I donā€™t think that industrially distillation is necessarily the only solution. I think in part itā€™s a hold over from peopleā€™s experience in THC where distillate was the end product.

2 Likes

Cant amino acids enable you to directly crystallize CBDa from a crude solution?

In the tread co-crisstelization
There is some info that will help with the anwser :fist_left:

1 Like

One of the biggest issues I have seen (from personal experience) is how long it can take to set up the lab and begin producing quality product. If you end up starting from biomass - that requires even more time, money, labor, and equipment. Make sure youā€™re aware that the price of CBD isolate is in a free fall; it might be worth even less by the time you have a product you can sell. Maybe the best route is to move towards isolating other cannabinoids, or making all of your isolate water-soluble. No matter which path you choose, it will most likely cost way more than you originally predicted. Trying to do this ā€œas cheap as possibleā€ is taking a huge gamble. Iā€™m not trying to discourage you, because I truly hope you succeed, but you should manage your expectations appropriately. This forum is the best place to learn how to do it right.

6 Likes

Like mentioned, itā€™s totally possible and have done it myself. Current methods available yield much less then distillation/isolation.

Thereā€™s a few tricks that could be done to see higher yields direct from crude but someone whose just starting out has a huge gap to fill to make any new process profitable.

Again yes it can be done, but again almost no ones currently doing it(there are some doing it at smallish scales) Most farmers arenā€™t growing and handling well enougn to even consider it. Most extractors arenā€™t extracting well enougn either and would need almost full remodels to come close.

1 Like