Setting up a distillation lab. What kind of filtering should I do on crude?

I want to avoid anything that will convert the THC to Delta 8.

I have read about a “Brine Wash”, what equipment is required for this and what exactly is it?

My process is going to be:

  1. Etoh soak starting material
  2. filter out plant material from etoh
  3. Leave the crude oil in a freezer for 24 hours
  4. Buchner Funnel the crude to winterize
  5. Some sort of filter, not sure what yet…
  6. rotovap off the Etoh
  7. Decarb in short path (without vacuum on)
  8. Once decarbed, Run short path with vaccine and make distillate

Going to have a 10L rotovap and a 2l short path.

How does this process look, am I missing anything? Please advise :blush:

Thanks!

If you want to winterize effectively you’ll have to recover your solvent to 10:1 Etoh:crude. Or recover then dilute to 10:1.

Skip that and do a cryo wash instead. I use t-5 and hardwood carbon. But I would use celite 545 for faster filtration and I believe t-5 makes d8 if it gets into crude.

With the filter it comes down to how much your filtering. Remember solvent recovery will always be your biggest obstacle.

Thanks for the input!

So if I extract with Etoh -20c it doesn’t pull the fats and waxes to begin with? How long of a soak should I do?

Should my mixture be more than 10:1 to begin with? That was what I was planning to use for the mixture to begin with…

Solvent recovery will be done with a Rotovap

Whether and how you filter are a bit depended on your goals etc. Every step adds cost, time and incurs potency loss.
Are you trying to make a very clear distillate, or just degum? Are you making a low cost product (then maybe you might possibly be able to skip filtration over filter media if you product isn’t gnar)

We want it to be high quality for sure. We were thinking to just add 1 step of filtration. Doesn’t have to be water clear in a big jar, but when it’s put in a cart we want it to be almost like that.

Yea you may need to rethink the process. If you need help let me know.

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The treasure chest from Summit Research is a good place to start.

Feel free to send me a message if you want to discuss it further.

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