I don’t get why people are so willing to say there’s unknown compounds in their butane and we’ll just keep distilling it out. If this oil is bad we should try and figure out what it actually is, and then put pressure on the gas suppliers to provide COAs that include it.
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Personally… this makes the most sense to me. If nothing is showing up in lab tests at unreasonable levels, then the only reason to not have it in our product is in the case of oils (particularly shatter) where it’s visible and “looks” sketchy.
Granted, it may be that there is little to no research on some of these larger hydrocarbons and their affects at low PPM on humans when vaped, but lets be real for a second, there is more documented evidence of terpenes affecting health than “mystery oil” yet no one is making a fuss out of that.
Personally, I do distill if time allows, and the greater the solvent : material ratio is, the greater the need to distill, but I don’t necessarily feel as if those who don’t deserve ridicule. There are far worse practices in this industry and far greater unknowns that we ought to be concerned with first…
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There actually are no unknown compounds in your solvent. I posted a link that will take you to test results done by someone. It actually has names and the amounts that where found. I would venture to say he solved the mystery.
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If that study is accurate then I have to say I do not see the cause for concern. I mean come on, let’s look at this MSDS for Limonene.
“May cause serious damage to lungs”, Health rating 3 = “Short exposure could cause serious temporary or moderate residual injury”, LD50 = 5200 mg/kg
Meanwhile heptane LD50 = 5000 mg/kg
Everyone here would be crying bloody murder if they found out an extract they smoked had 1% heptane but they would consider 1% limonene to be A-OK and even a sign of quality.
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im so torn on this subject cause science is showing me one thing but my gut tell me another thing. When you have been doing this for sooo long. It just seems like the old way is the right way. Im 100% with @sonicgardens with distilling my gas. I know science is telling me im not doing shit but i have seen weird black shit come from distilling that i dont want in my personal headstash.
I also use distilling my gas as a time to clean my extractor fully. The gas is able to cleanse my lines, fitting, and valves. So it really has a double benefit even if one is all in my head.
I really like what @MagisterChemist is saying here that maybe we should be asking our gas suppliers to demand better standards. There is obviously a good markup in selling gas. Dont see many of the people selling gas going outta business.
And i dont think anyone should be pointing fingers at whos right and wrong. All of this is only 13-14 years old. Shit, just in the last year we all figured that we can make clear hydrocarbon extractions with some simple powders. I really feel anyone that calls them a “expert” in this field just has an ego…cause there are no REAL EXPERTS…just people that are more knowledgeable on the subject. In 2040, and we are all still doing this…then ill say there are experts…until then, im here to learn.
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I agree on that last point. There are no real experts. Just people who let the compliments get to their heads.
And more often than not the pioneers in this field are really fucked up anyways; raping trimmer girls, treating employees like utter trash, killing people for no good reason, starting forest fires, 1000% markups, “proprietary ingredients”, driving ford trucks, tax evasion, slander, extortion, finessing the lil guy and outright lies.
We should be shaming people for actual fucked up stuff, but thats just my opinion
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Also another thing is I have never seen this kind of logic applied to any other solvent. Have you ever heard anyone say “hey when you buy ethanol, make sure you rotavap 5gal of it first and see if there’s any residue in your flask.” And if someone did do this trial, do you think everyone would start pre-distilling every 55gal drum of ethanol they buy?
Or has anyone distilled the jar of True Terpenes they’re adding to their product and seen if there’s any “mystery residue”?
Why does this get such peculiar focus?
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some times I feel like people arent paying attention and just agree
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I pay attention. Its kinda pricey though
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I was going to say the same. I got a ford, dodge, chevy and a Toyota up here i must be the bad guy. Im also burning some wood piles. 
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This is exactly my point and what the author showed thru testing and lab results. The amount by weight and % of the byproducts in our solved are miniscule. He put it in perspective very well i thought.
" In chemistry, and in toxicity, there is no finite zero and if you analyze mothers milk or drinking water, you will find things like gold, arsenic, etc, at the parts per billionth level.
Poison is in the dosage, and even a 75% oxygen atmosphere will kill us mortals."
If they find out that mothers milk has has arsenic here in California i think they will outlaw its use. At best they will make moms put a sticker and their tits with a warning.
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Can you imagine being a compliance officer in that market
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Where do I sign up?
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I will be the official sticker placer in the compliance department .
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The nature of byproducts as well as pumps/some equipment used by a petroleum distillation rig and that of an ethanol production plant are very different.
Distilling the TT Viscosity won’t likely tell us that much because I imagine they want the boiling points to be from a range of compounds, and thus harder to reproduce or figure out the contents of.
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I can also say that from personal experience with early CMEP-OL models, the smallest bit of lubricant/oil/something definitely fucked my lungs up majorly. Believe me that I flushed the pump multiple times with the appropriate solvents before use - as per manufacturer suggestion. The problem was persistent, and it became unquestionable the level of contamination. I thought I gave myself cancer at the time - not even kidding.
Quality control, quality control, quality control. That’s my opinion. It’s not too difficult or time consuming to distill solvent before use.
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That’s not my point. The point is why are you worried about contamination in butane, but not in ethanol and viscosity? If the reason you’re worried is because of the pumps the manufacturer used, then perhaps you know something about what contamination those pumps produce, so that we can test for it directly, instead of just using visual inspection?
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Oh, I definitely am concerned with it - I’m even providing a test sample of TT Viscosity. Where do you get such claims that I don’t care?
The major differences, again, lie in the probability that there may be a contaminant as well as the types of contaminants. I have rarely distilled butane and seen/smelled no residue in the collection chamber afterwards (albeit I haven’t been distilling butane/propane myself for a couple years now). But I wasn’t suggesting that ethanol does not need to be distilled for quality assurance. I was just suggesting that I feel strongly that butane and propane do.
Byproducts from petroleum distillations scare me much more than from ethanol production.
I don’t know what pumps they are using - we would likely have to contact the actual gas manufacturer if they can share such info. I couldn’t find a lab that was confident they could figure it out with any assurance at the time (2015). Doctor’s visits, flammability tests, and plenty of visual inspections were all the empirical data I had.
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I am a big advocate of distilling. I am no scientist or expert. I know when i distill im not pushing it through any fine micro screens or powders or anything else for that matter.
If we know exactly what to look for then we will know if it makes it to our final product. It could get trapped in powders or material. I have no idea.
But with that said i will still distill my tane. Because i have no idea if it makes it to my final product. And i believe it to be the rite thing to do
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