Does anyone extract and crystallize in pentane. I began using ethanol along time ago, then switched to 70/30 Butane propane recently, Ive been able to cold crash easily with butane propane but extraction and CRC is tedious and time consuming. I started experimenting with Pentane recently and being a non polar solvent similar to Propane and Butane in non-polarity. Ive been trying to extract in Pentane, rotovap my pentane out then cold crash in my vessel with with Butane/Propane then doing the usual protocol for cold crashing but no luck. The extraction with pentane is super easy my cryogenic freezer goes to -100c so my material is perfectly winterized and pentane is non polar so it doesnt pick up any fats, lipids. Does anyone do extraction in pentane and crystallization. What are your temps for cold crashing?
I extract with pentane ar 32C in a fuge but all further steps are different
Pentane is a horrible solvent at cold temps
Searching pentane on here should yield plenty of results
I did alot of researching on here, majority of it is recrystallization of THCA in pentane and regrowing into bigger diamonds.
If you want, I can set up a call with my guy Avery he knows all about crystallization, totally free by the way. I might try to sell you solvents on the call though so be warned lol
In all seriousness though we can go into our recommended crystallization process and share yield results, basically feel free to pick our brains, more than happy to help!
Forsure id greatly appreciate it.
Glad to help! I will shoot you a PM now
Thank you, I really appreciate
Still lots of relevant info IMO. Looks like you’re getting the help you need though!
I got alot of info on here a ton tbh love the community out here.
It sounds like you didn’t see any crystallization because you may not have actually picked up much in the way of cannabinoids at -100°C in pentane. You would probably want to try the same expirement, but at slightly higher temperatures.
The other issue you are likely encountering is the presence of terpenes working as additional solvent in your jars, but again only if you’re successfully extracting them at those temps.
The only downside I can think of to doing a pentane extraction is you won’t be able to use the hte left over after and will instead need to fractionate that portion into residual solvent, water clear terpenes, and any remaining cannabinoids with further post-processing.
Never used pentane, but I’ve done lots of extraction and crystallization in heptane. It’s my favourite flammable solvent to extract with. Never tried to extract cold though, that sounds like a bad time.
Im not worried about the hte i have gallons of it from my butane extractions. It has been picking up a fair amount of thc wven at -100c i can see it when i filter it comes out super gold clear kinda like after I scrub my ethanol material.
Whats your sop like, if heptane is feasible i.might switch to that. I just want something more tangible and moveable. I hate having to extract under vacuum and pumps etc. Plus my ethanol extactiom units are put to good use.
The only reason I switched to Pentane is because the low boiling point and its close structure to propane butane. I figured it would be the same thing when cold crashing.
Color and density variance in your solution are not necessarily indicative of the presence of cannabinoids, which are clear. Even if you’re seeing schlieren lines you could be seeing extracted aromatics and color bodies of a different density than the pentane. If you evaporate all of the pentane, and then all the terpenes and you don’t crystallize anything, you don’t have acidic cannabinoids.
At what temp and pressure are you reducing your pentane solution to encourage super saturation? The other possibility is your reduction process is too our, or not sufficiently long enough to reach super saturation.
I don’t just hand out data I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars optimizing. If you’re interested in buying a clue, shoot me a message.
I went to about 40c for about 30 minutes before pulling down to -79c. On another note I had some diamonds I dissolved in a jar Sunday night and put them in my cryogenic freezer, when I took them out yesterday it was a frozen solid block.
Are these parameters for your initial extraction or for a recrystallization?
If for extraction, I’d be more inclined to think you did in fact extract cannabinoids during that high temp phase, but during the low temp phase if the material was still present maybe you redeposited them on the material.
I’m inclined to think you either didn’t extract cannabinoids, did extract them and left them behind on the material by going too cold after extraction, or did extract them and they are present in your final solution, but at a low enough concentration that they won’t precipitate especially when you add the aromatics, which are working as a wide range of solvents impacting your overall solvency.
Reduce your solution until you see precipitation beginning to confirm you did in fact extract acidic cannabinoids. Also, if the material you used wasn’t stored properly or was aged too much you might have competing degradation products interfering with crystallization.