I am looking to buy a small steam distillation kit to extract terps from cannabis.
I was thinking of using pentane to do the extraction due to the low boiling point but then I saw newer kits that use steam instead
Like this
So I was wondering if anyone had any experience with either and if they could recommend which one is the better method.
Thanks
That setup is way overpriced.
I wouldn’t spend $1800+ on something like this. Especially if you already have some glassware available to you. You can buy an organic lab glassware setup for about $100.
And you can also just do this.
Extraction terps by using water has by far the lowest yield. That’s why people don’t do it.
Solvent extraction doubles the yields.
Plus not to mention that with this setup the extracted terps are exposed to 100c heat during the entire process which will virtually destroy all the terps.
This Is a terrible idea.
That wouldn’t be to extract terpenes. That’s just a way you could condense terpenes back into HTE/live resin while allowing pressure to be release during a low temp decarb.
Steam distillation is really only worth doing because it’s so easily scalable for massive farms and let’s you skip on curing. The quality is just not up to par with other methods. Small scale would be very disappointing.
Ah I COMPLETELY misunderstood your post. Although, I’ve see good yields extracting terpenes from crude with a similar setup, just not recondensing back into the boiling flask. My mistake.
What yields do you usually see with steam distillation?
I’m talking about vacuum distillation with steam assist on crude oil that has a decent terpene profile. Iirc, I was able to get about 40g of terpenes separated off hydrosol, from around 300 - 500g of crude oil. I just used a boiling flask and a vacuum adapter connected to a cold finger in dry ice/acetone, and an addition funnel on the boiling flask with distilled water. I think terpene content will vary greatly depending on input material of course.
Can do it without the addition funnel with water, but it’s much slower ime.
Ah ok, my starting material is plant material under vacuum.
Supposed to get 1t 3% yield like that.
Using pentane is supposed to increase the yield according to research papers.
I’ve seen pentane tek thrown around here and there. I assume you’d do an LLE on the saturated pentane to get the terpenes out of it? I haven’t extracted terpenes this way but I’d imagine it quite difficult to separate the terpenes from the solvent otherwise.
Yes exactly. I read quite a few,scientific papers about extractions using pentane and ether.
I choose pentane because it is very terpene specific.
Have you already perused this thread? It seems like a promising route, I would try it if I were still in a lab. I don’t think you’ll have to spend that kind of money to get the setup you want though, I think as long as you’re able to keep the system closed and you can recondense your pentane vapor you’re good to go, obviously in a well ventilated area. Plenty of good glassware available for much cheaper, you’ll just have to piece it together yourself. It is nice to have that quality assurance from a brand name though I suppose.
No, I did some test runs with and without vacuum.
Today I’m doing another test run on orange peels with vacuum to see the results then I will do a pentane run with vacuum and no heat applied, just room temperature.
On a side note. Pentane and hexane is used in the perfume and fragrance industry to extract terps but its not used in the cannabis industry because it is not meant for human consumption.
But in general pentane targets terpenes very specifically.
Kinda off topic, but you mentioning distilling orange peels reminded me of this video.
First half is a limonene distillation from orange peel puree hahaha
But no doubt nonpolar hydrocarbons are used for the fragrance industry. Cannabis is not the first to do anything, for sure. Nearly every process we do is adapted from another industry. Gotta keep finding the most logical solutions. If a simple LLE on the saturated pentane is all that’s needed to get a compliant end product, then surely it’s scalable for cannabis as well.
It is scalable for cannabis but regulations don’t allow such processes for human consumption so it will never be compliant no matter how pure and clean the end product is unfortunately.
I have wanted to play with pentane in this manner and in LLE but it’s just so volatile. The idea of boiling pentane in a glass set up scared the pants off of me.
Treat it like butane not like ethanol.
You don’t use heat, just gentle vacuum.