I’m curious if anyone has had success with running unwinterized crude through a SPD and if so, how did you achieve it? I’ve seen a few references to using a hot condenser but no specifics.
The company that supplies our crude oil also offers distillate that is unwinterized and it has no issues with clarity/viscosity.
We just ran some of their crude oil through our SPD to see if we could replicate those results (I figured maybe their distillation parameters minimize lipids) and it came out pretty waxy. For reference our company sells tinctures, softgels, and powdered CBD products.
What temp were they extracting at? Because if they’re running cold enough and filtering, they’re semi winterizing but it’s not a formal step.
But I will say, the step you can probably skip (and I run ambient ethanol) is winterization. I winterize at -40C for 48hr and whether it be regular filtration or a panda, I get maybe ~25-50g per kg of crude, but nothing like the stuff I’ve pulled from CO2 oil.
this is how we run, still ‘winterization’ in my book. just my opinion but making it an in-line process vs a separate formal step doesn’t mean one stopped (or is even semi-) winterizing.
I’m quite sure there’d be a range of opinions on this point, that’s a hair that could stand to be split
I know a lab that does it with their wiped films. What poor operators, constantly water washing away burnt lipids and polymerized gums.
It’s uhm… It works better than I would expect. But they have dark distillate that varies across all shades of poop brown. They also had trouble devolatilizing before distillation. Very stanky distillate.
If done right it can save you alot of time on simple solvent recovery. I would run hot un winterized 1st pass and dewax that then into the wiper when i was doing it. I also decarb and remove volatile’s in the roto. Especially if your trying to remediate or scrub since its already decarbed.
Once they have been distilled the lipids need to be filtered down to at minimum .5 micron. They look cool though all shiny and silvery. Its just a way to cut down on the amount needed to be winterized, i can see how it could easily make bad liters but if you do it right it can really help with through put
That’s a smart approach, to be honest. The missing step for the lab I mention is filtering that shit out instead of just burning it into the distillation equipment and fouling up the whole operation.
Likewise using the rotovape as a sort of terp-strip/decarboxylation reactor. Clever
Yeah I remember I used to decarb in my still and it was a nightmare. I didn’t do a good job of removing volatiles either so it foamed like crazy. One time pressure built up and it shot the thermowell and painted the ceiling then it rained crude. Good times.
This is the picture of a wiper I use to show people what happens when you don’t winterize prior. Take it how you will when thinking it’s a good idea for spd.
Thats the exact reason i never tried, never needed too but after seeing it in to roto it was just a matter of time before a bump would make have to ahut it down. Or a whole cleanup on isle 1 like your experience. Not sure why anyone would try un winterized in a wiper, seems like theres only one way that would go
You can distill an unwinterized butane extract without charring or degrading the oil. The oil will be bright yellow but very cloudy. Winterize your first pass and you are back on track. Any of you guys describing charring and burning is likely from an alcohol or co2 extract. It’s important to know how all your impurities behave under heat. Sugars will burn and char, fats will become liquid and then distill over.
