What I thought was a failed experiment became slightly less failed? I had some acid activated clay and was trying to lighten up an extract (obvs). I hadn’t read much for an SOP so I ended up doing approx 10:1 etoh to resin and 1:1 resin to clay. I stirred it in room temperature etoh for an hour with no change. Then got annoyed and stirred it for 2 days just to see what would happen. At first nothing happened. I put it off to the side as a failed experiment then i looked back at it approx 2 weeks but I then noticed my dark solution had lightened up considerably. The ethanol looked almost clear/light yellow, then there was a layer of really dark oil, then the clay underneath.
I took a syringe and pulled off the light ethanol layer and evaporated the solvent. And HOLY shit it came out with a super strong really snappy resin, that was also really quite light in colour compared to the super dark resin I put in. I’ve since started 2 experiments 4 days ago to see if anything comes up and I’ll keep this updated over the next coming weeks.
I’m wildly curious what happened. It seems like it winterized and bleached the result in one step? Has anyone heard of anything like this? I thought I read somewhere that the clay had an affinity for waxes? All the SOP I’ve read here says bleaching clay doesn’t work very well with ethanol? Did I come up with a new refinement? The patient method?
Some seed oil processes leave the oil in contact with bleaching clay for an extended period to ensure absorption…you’re probably on to something. Hydrated lipids would stick to clay rather well.
I’m doing a second pull on the the dark oil that remained. It still had a strong taste and was sticky so I’m just guessing there’s cannabanoids in there.
Do you think the fact that he ran this test at room temperature had anything to do with the lipid separation? When conducting a typical bleaching method the temp is at least 90C. At room temp the lipids would be less soluble in solution and also likely solid instead of liquid.
What is the chemical mechanism that would bind the hydrated waxes to the clay?
Yeah I was kinda wondering if I put it in the freezer if it would expedite the process or not. I would think it would slow down the settling process, but then maybe at the same time make the waxes less bonded to the ethanol. I guess I figured out my next few experiments.
So 12 days in, no change. Still dark. I can’t remember how long it was for that crash, but a minimum of 2 weeks. Might’ve been closer to 3. I’ll keep you guys in the loop
Also, my absolute lack of precise scientific method and notekeeping might’ve mucked this one up a bit for us.
I think I may have heated it for a couple hours off and on in the ethanol then left it for the time period, I was so disappointed with the initial result that I forgot my procedure. I may have to redo this whole thing tomorrow just to get more variables accounted for.
