I always run sub critical. It seems to be a lot less fatty when it comes to winterizing. Also get better yields running sub.
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What do your final yields look like percentage wise?
I average 12% final on low grade trim.
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What! 12% dist from low grade trim? Is that for real? Iāve only got 12.7% dist from only sugar leaf. Itās usually around 5% with normal trim.
Or did you mean 12% crude?
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SPD is fairly easy to get high potency. If you have any issues feel free to text or call me at 408.348.7264 and I can hold your hand and walk you through a high potency sop. The main steps to developing a high potency is the same for all machines. Pre processing. I am happy to walk you through it.
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18% crude, which loses 6% to winterization, decarb, and carbon scrub, and a final 2% on distillation. So 10% distillate, plus whatever percentage of terpenes, which is usually 5% of the crude weight.
Final is closer to 15% on good trim or ok bud.
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How do you extract to get those numbers? If I may ask? I feel I must have left stuff behind, even with two soaks at -20c.
All trim run here
If I have 700ml etoh crude, Iām pulling near 500ml (about 475ml) mains @ 89.57% total thc. Iām guessing about, 15ml in the cold trap rf, 75ml in the heads flask, 75-100(tops)ml tails and I end up with the above 100ml left in the bf.
I do (imo) top shelf etoh washes (self pat on back, lol).
Zero winterization, but always kept cryo cold start of wash until end of filtering.
I do up to 40min soak, 30 minutes minimum.
Iām still learning the ways of the force.
Lol
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Supercritical CO2 permeates the cell walls and extracts cannabinoids inside the cells. Warm ethanol does a pretty good job of this as well. Especially cold solvents can only take off whatās in the trichombs.
@Renchi get your extracted material tested, then youāll know for sure if/what youāre leaving.
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Tbh the only ethanol crude I work with is from hemp. I also do all of my distillations in a wiped film.
Regardless, Iād say those number look good.
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Thanks for the reply and info on extracting from the cells. I didnāt know that. I built my own co2 tube way back in the day, but never got any good yields as it lacked some major components and used heat to get the co2 super critical. Oh, youthful indiscretions. Yeah, I will be testing the newer material, what I worked with these last months was so heinous Iām glad something came out of it, tbh.
Iām using microscopes and touch to determine if I think thereās anything left atm.
Do you have much experience distilling supercritical CO2 extracted crude? It seems most everyone Iāve talked to canāt break 90% THC with it, especially in a short path. Iām managing to get over the hump in a wiped film, so I wonder.
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Yes, co2 has more water and water solubles. Usually requires a was and neutralizations and then a short two inch bed strip. This brings the base back up to snuff. See if you have compounds that exist and they are simply present you canāt distill it out. Especially bid same boiling point and vapor pressure. You have to eliminate it prior and then it wonāt come out in the distillation.
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I canāt remember if I posted this or not, possibly in another threadā¦
I confirmed that supercritical CO2 crude (total extract ridiculously high PSI, no separate terp extraction, ExtraktLAB 140 protocol) definitely has acids in it. When dissolved in EtOH for winterization the pH was about 5.0 ! This compares to a pH of 6.8-7 for cold ethanol extracted crude.
Such material definitely needs a pH correction before shortpath and there is confirmed degradation with such material. Interestingly enough, this extract also contains heavy molecules that are hard to fractionate via distillation that donāt seem to be extracted via BHO or EHO. How do I know? I ran some in wiped film (same protocol that gives 99% purity on EHO) and it came out at ~80%. Yikes! (EDIT: confirmed no degradation with wiped film protocol vs SPD protocol via HPLC results).
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Cannabinoids on inside of cells? Didnāt know this. Have thought they only are biosynthesized in the trichome. (Atleast thc and cbd) You sure they actually are on the inside of the leaf nessesitating a leaching operation to extract 99%?
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They certainly are inside the cells. Get some material that was extracted with sub zero butane and get it tested, there most definitely will be cannabinoids left over.
I have experience with 5L and 2L SPD. Our best results have been from the 2L which we just purchased recently. 94.5% CBD 2.89% THC. No scrub or other pre processing of the crude. Our 5L is consistently in the upper 80s. 2L is a more compact system, less to heat, shorter run timesā¦
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This is great I really need to re-read this
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I also experienced higher results initially on a 2L setup, however, the run times were approximately the same, so Iām not entirely sure what was going on. Could have been due to the different head designs too and different theoretical plates (fractionation power). Not sure though. Also, I have a very strong hunch that there is batch variation depending on the biomass, perhaps different strains have higher or lower levels of mystery compound X that is picked up when you run non-selective supercritical extraction parameters.
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I know that some cold extracts are not 99% efficient, and that a warm wash will grab the remainder, but were those cannabinoids that remained actually Inside the leaf? I dont wanna hijack the thread and get off topic. We can start a thread to discuss further, unless I am the only one here who hasnt internalized this as factā¦