I have taken over for a former lab manager who put Etoh extracts in the vac oven with my 3 fresh runs of BHO…needless to say they were completely contaminated. I have dissolved the bho in etoh to filter it. but alcohol extraction is not really my forte, though I am completely open to training and knowledge. I had done some buchner filtration with the previous manager, though he would use the wrong powders and in the wrong amounts so I am needing help going forward so I don’t perpetuate the cycle. I also have 4200 mL of extremely dark etoh wash that he was working on when he was dismissed. I have the correct powders and filter papers to build a proper filter cake, but what would take out the extreme dark pigments?
contaminated how?
how does dissolving your BHO in ethanol and filtering help?
see: TheLostBiologist Bucket and Post Processing Tek for Golden Extract
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He was rotovaping down an etoh extraction and poured the flask onto parchment and put in the hot oven along with 3 slabs. When I arrived at the lab the next day the slabs were dark and runny. My owner figured he could winterize them so he mixed them with ethanol and has the mixture in the freezer and here we are.
winterization is not going to achieve anything other than pulling the fats out of your BHO. Not a bad thing, but won’t change the color. nor the viscosity to any great extent.
sounds more like idiot boy threw his stuff in and turned up the heat. which would explain both dark & lower than expected viscosity…
was there anything left on the EHO parchment? any indication, other that color or viscosity , that the EHO had migrated from it’s parchement? (all over the walls too?!?)
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There was a fair bit of splattering on the parchment and a small bit on the roof of the oven. The oven temp was set at 96, pretty high for bho agreed, But they actually were runny and one had sugared in less that 12 hours
Sell your sugar for more 
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Haha, I would have if it was my call! He went ahead and dissolved it in with the rest.
@cyclopath I was reading on AC scrubbing and have the celite to filter it out. Would this lighten the extraction up, or should I tell my boss that it is what it is? I also have a larger etoh extraction to scrub, several gallons worth.
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did you read through @TheLostBiologist’s thread?
as you’ve got a CLS and hydrocarbons, there are probably easier ways of removing your color…
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I’m running crc inline and getting good results so far, one of the reasons why we speculate contamination from the etoh as the slabs were clear and very light colored. I’m reading that thread as well as a few others, already noticing things he did that we were unaware of fully. Using insanely way to much etoh to biomass ratio, something like 6lbs biomass to 4 gallons etoh! It’s going to take so long to filter and roto down…
@cyclopath the runs today went great, much appreciated!!
BEFORE
After
The culprit
Funny thing is I had mentioned an ac scrub or t41 based on what I had read on a Facebook group,that advice was clearly ignored…
My boss freaked out when the silica slurry heated up in his beaker in his hand, he’s having fun learning too!
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distillion or chromotagraphy.
I would personaly go chromotagraphy as sugars can come over with the high boiling points
need for cannabinoids and they will caramelize and darken as well.
you can also get decolorising carbon which is used when the product is in solvent.
put product in heptane then put carbon in.
leave to sit for a few days.
filter and strip solvent.
might work.
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Our best guess on contamination was because there was so much alcohol still in the etoh extract that the vaporized alcohol attached to the oil as it was reading a low alcohol reading on the gas meter 2 days later. He had emptied a 2 liter roto onto parchment and tried to vac them down at 100 initially…with my oil in the oven!!
@squig I’ve been dealing with saccharides for sure, would I have to use heptane? I dont have any on hand and I think my boss is adverse to using it?
Just rerun it in your cls and through your CRC
So what color is (freshly distilled: you’re proposing condensed vapor) ethanol?
Does that really hold up?
In order to darken your slabs they were either overheated, or his slab physically spilled or splashed into yours.
I can see wrecking one slab via spill/splash, but three seems unlikely to me given the way ovens are setup. So my bet is that your slabs got too hot, and may also be partially decarbed.
In which case even running it through your CRC probably won’t solve the problem.
I’m not saying that’s what happened buddy, we were just speculating on things.
Yep. Trying to help you with that process. By asking you to look more critically at your proposed mechanism.
If that was interpreted as offensive, I interpret that as defensive…
Apologies.
I’m here to make sure good clean meds are available to those in need…by helping those making those meds available.
Even if you didn’t need to be disabused of the notion that re-condensed ethanol could darken your oil, that info will up somebody’s game. If you did, then celebrate! You learned something…
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People here can be be ALOT more assertive with their assumptions. From what I read Cyclopath was trying to help with figuring out the root cause through elimination. At this point… I would redissolve and distill and move on to the next thing.
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I’m not mad and I didn’t think it was forward, sorry if I seemed defensive at all. I know very little about some of the actual science behind this so I will always listen and accept advice so I appreciate you all taking time out of your day to comment… Happy to be part of an educating community!
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