We have been using the Ardent Nova machine. It’s like an easy bake oven 
I need to figure out what I’ll be doing for larger batches. Haven’t had to because the source is so small.
I’ll do more research but was thinking 30 min at 245* F.
Based on this:
I try to do a few water removal steps, it does get complicated. Hanging the cold coconut oil in a mesh bag and hitting with a fan might be the best approach. I try to bring my final product to 210 f as well
man if it works it works lol
i decarb at a lower temp for a lot longer but you’ll just have to play around with it
I’m skeptical of this number of 68% - granted the medium of the cannabinoids (biomass, concentrate, infusion) can change rates & efficiencies. My most recent infusion decarb was:
pre decarb: 0.951 g/mL with potencies (3 tests) of 53.0, 52.7, and 54.7 mg cbda/g and 4.6, 4.5 and 4.6 mg cbd/g which average to a total potential cbd of 51.5 mg cbd/g
after decarb: 0.948 g/mL with potencies (3 tests) of 48.8, 51.1, 48.9 mg cbd/g giving an average of 49.6 mg/g
My hplc methods aren’t perfect but they are usually good to within a few percent, at least. Point being, decarb ‘efficiency’ of lipid infusions is well above 68%. It’s at least 95%. (96% using the data above).
In their writeup they consider batchwise infusion - the countercurrent method I wrote out above gives extraction efficiencies of over 90% with MCT, olive, avocado, etc. Reason being, after your first wash of stepping up your potent oil as much as possible, you follow up with a second wash with a less potent oil that more readily dissolves the remaining cannabinoids. And even more so if you do third and fourth washes. Then once your most potent wash meets your spec, you take it out of the process, and your lower potency (2nd, 3rd, etc…) washes become your 1st and 2nd washes.
the simplest way to calculate the maximum amount of oil, infused to a certain potency, that you can make from biomass can be written as
m_o * c_o = E * m_b * c_b
where
m_o is infusion mass
c_o is the infusion potency
E is the efficiency
m_b is the mass of biomass
c_b is the biomass potency
so the amount of infused mct oil, at 3.2% potency (by mass, or 30 g/mL when density is 0.94 g/mL), you can make from 28.35 grams of 18% potent biomass is
m_o = 0.9 x (28.35 grams) x (18%) / (3.2%) = 153.1 grams of oil or 163 mL
There I assumed an efficiency factor of 0.9. (which I have verified for this process running 180 lbs at a time…)
The result of the equation above however occurs only if you get all of your cannabinoids into your most potent oil. Realistically, at the end of your extraction, there will be some cannabinoids left in the lower potency (i.e. 2nd, 3rd, etc.) washes. In the long run, after running lots and lots of minibatches, you approach the result of the equation above. In practice tho you don’t want to have to run an infinite number of minibatches so there is a compromise that must be reached!
All that said, I expect you can get at least 70% of the cannabinoids in the potent oil that you take out as product if you do 10 minibatches at 2.8 grams per. Thus for an ounce you should be able to make at least 110 mL of oil infused to 30 mg/mL.
Since you expect to be taking out 110 mL from your process, I would use a 20 mL syringe (pack the end with cotton) and take out the ‘first wash’ after the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, and 10th mini batches.
After all the washes and minibatches you will have 100 mL of potent oil that you took out of the process, as well as 20 mL of your second and 20 mL of your third wash. Your 100mL of potent oil should be up to spec so that you can dilute with the 20mL of your second wash.
In my experience, the ‘spent biomass’ triples in mass if you squeeze it reasonably well… so for 28 g fresh you should expect to lose about 60 mL of dilute oil to the biomass. All in all looking at 200mL.
I hope you can appreciate that some of my numbers aren’t exact… trying to get some ideas across first and foremost!
Wow! Thank You! That will take a couple reads to fully digest but I cant wait to experiment. I have a stainless french press and some bromocresol green on the way for decarb. I’m sure I will have more questions.
You experience with lab test to back it up, I’m ok with not exact numbers. Thanks again.
my pleasure! hit me up with questions as they come to you, especially design of your infusion.
those stainless french presses are great for squeezing the leftover mct oil out
Ok it been a bit but I’ve been playing some. I started and Batsona Gave me some advise to I vectored mid way. Its ok, I’ll get the process down and become more efficient (wasting less oil etc). I am also inspired and want to try the perculation. Maybe in a month or so I’ll fabricate that up and start testing. In the mean time I’m using a aeropress. I started with the french press, but for the small batch sizes I’m starting off with it is very inneficient (7g biomass in a 32oz press with 50ml oil).
1a:
2a:
Aeropress Batches:
Batch 3: Following step 2 in Batsona SOP.
3a:
Batch 4: Following step 3 in Batsona SOP.
4a:
As you can see by input oil and final biomass weight that I’m getting better as I figure this out. So this is just a test batch.
French press, needed a lot of oil just to cover biomass:
First 2 batches:
Final Oil:
I don’t think the Bromocresol green trick works on lipid infusions.
I’m sure it’s the oil not allowing the dye to mix.
![image|375x500]Been decarb IMG 4hrs at 110c. I barely got any bubbles, not like a lot of the pictures and videos I’ve seen. But I’ll prob pull it anyhow.
what’s this?
and you’re not seeing bubbles because it’s dissolved in mct oil. pure extract will noticably bubble when you decarb it
its a test to check for full decarb.
o badass!
yeah decarbing an infusion there is much less worry for things getting out of hand like there is with a concentrated crude. The bubbles should be pretty small, no bigger than 1 mm. At 110 to 115 degC you might get a flurry of activity as water is driven off and the reaction kicks up but it’s normal to not see much going on. Four hours at 110degC I would expect good conversion, at least 90%. But I routinely misjudge decarb times! Without any data my hunch is that it takes longer for less potent infusions to complete.
Unfortunately I have tried the beam test without any success on mct infusions… maybe there’s a way to modify method because I have definitely seen color changes when adding base to infusions.
yea i always found the only 100% indicator is when it stops bubbling after decarbing extract. but you can definitely do it in mct it just takes some r&d. you’re right it can get out of hand if you don’t release pressure regularly
Aweome, Thank You. I cant wait to try my next batch and see how much more efficient I can get.
In the mean time I sent the decarbed oil to the R&D department.
quite possibly. I failed to consider that aspect.
you may have to do an extraction/concentration step. that where speed vacs come in handy (requires a vac pump, and ideally a cold trap). not sure what the correct solvent would be for MCT.
your tincture may also be too dilute (that’s certainly why it didn’t bubble as vigorously as 70%+ cannabinoid material does).
