Is it possible to get THCA isolate with 0.00 ppm on all residual solvents? I have a COA showing n-butane at 713ppm which is way under the compliance of 5000ppm. Also, being n-butane is volatile, won’t it evaporate eventually on it’s own over time? I could put it back into a vac oven, but I don’t want to decarb it!
That would depend on solvents used, at least to some degree…
Grain size?
Milling may help…
Then leave the heat off/below rm temp.
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Hmm, milling might help! Thanks for the tip!
Milling helps a lot. We also put ours in a vacuum oven at 110 F for 24 hours and have not seen any obvious decarboxylation.
What you are experiencing is crystal lock. When the lattice structure forms, the congregation of the THCa molecules will entrap impurities, in this case entrapping n-butane. With that being said, traditional purging techniques should be able to reduce your residual solvent level from 700+ to well below 50 ppm. You will eventually reach a point where the residual solvent present can no longer be reduced without breaking the lattice so the residual solvent within can escape. As some are suggesting, you can mill the isolate but you will never truly reach 0 ppm. You could try recrystallizing the isolate in a solvent with a higher boiling point than n-butane to fully remove your isolate of n-butane, but then you are running into the same issue with your newly introduced solvent. I understand your pain, my products must pass a 12 ppm analytical inspection for n-butane.
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Dude, thank you!
How are you achieving under 12ppm!? Thanks for the info and explanation, you’re a wizard Woodward!
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