What is the rest of my Co2 Oil?

Hey guys, I had a Co2 batch come back at about 58% total Cannabiods with 10.6% terpenes…
What makes up the rest of the oil??
58% total is definitely on the low end for us…
I winterize up to 3 times (25, 10, 2) with 24h freeze times at -40F in between each one.
When I came aboard we were only freezing 24h for the first 25micron and then 4h for the 10micron and then proceeding with the 2micron right after.
I started doing 24h in between each in hopes it would increase the total since I didn’t feel like we were catching all the fats. I increased the totals by a few percentages but when tests come back less than 60% I guess I just don’t understand why at all… Any help would be greatly appreciated! :pray:

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You’re getting 10% terpenes in your oil after winterization? That seems really high for having ran it though an ethanol recovery step. Makes me have to ask if that other 30% is ethanol. Or it’s other amphiphilic gums/phosphatides/triglycerides that don’t come out in a normal dewax.

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10% has been our average for a while now… We had Sour Grapes and Obama Kush come back at 17%.
We’re definitely under the limit for Ethanol in the oil. I can double check the solvent list in the test but we’ve never failed for it.
I can’t find any information on what the rest of Co2 Oil is and it’s bugging me :joy:
The lab just opened up at 9 so i’m going to give them a call and see what information they can give me because I even looked at the various tests offered and none of them are related to this information.

What cannabinoids are they testing for?

That’s pretty awesome actually. I’m curious too though. Hopefully those chemistry guys at your lab should be able to give you a better idea. That’s kind of their job lol

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Ahhh I like that question!
The basics; THC(a)(V), CBD(a)(V), CBC, CBG, CBN, CBG(a)

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Are they looking for delta 8 or delta 10?

May have an accidental conversion going on from somewhere in your process. Just a thought. I feel like if there was a big chunk of delta 8 THC they would have probably addressed it but some labs don’t always go the extra mile

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Interesting…
Never thought of that. Out of this 58%; 53% of it is THC.
I’ll ask the lab and get back to you guys soon :+1:

Edit: On the lab result I do not see them test for it but we have a very good standing with the lab and I also feel like they’d let us know about that.

You didn’t mention CRC but that’s the only other thing that really comes to mind. Couldn’t hurt to ask

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Are you decarbing material prior to extraction? What are your parameters for the co2 extraction itself? Running super or sub? Even just with an ethanol evap, I’m incredibly skeptical you’re actually hitting 10% + terpenes. You may want to have a chat with your lab. Our EHO generally tests between 1.5-4% terpenes, 89-94% cannabinoids. Extracted at -70c and evapped at 35-40c. Maybe consider using a non polar for winterization, say pentane or hexane? See if That removes more of the fatty contents.

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10% terpene content post-winterization is pretty much unheard of for CO2 extraction, you simply cannot remove all the ethanol without removing a significant amount of terpenes. Are you reintroducing terpenes after the winterization process prior to testing? All of our refined CO2 oil (winterized + decarbed) comes back between 1% and 3% total terpene content, very occasionally we will hit 4% or 5%. 58% total cannabinoids and 10% terpene content sounds like raw CO2 oil fresh out of the extraction machine.

I would agree with @buckeyebuds, sounds like you might have a good chunk of ethanol left in there. What is the viscosity of the oil? Is it decarbed?

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Do you decarb your material prior to extraction?

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We do not decarb before but we do pelletize. We haven’t ran any tests (I hope to soon) of when the decarbing occurs because when the results come back it’s almost 50/50 with the THC.

We used to average 5%-7% terpenes when the SOP was to boost the rotovap temp to 160F and Drop the vac as low as it could go at the end of the run to get rid of the terps that could potentially cause the cartridges to leak but I was experimenting since I felt that was a little too extreme and just left the Roto temp at 120 and went to full vacuum for a little bit until I figured it was done pulling ethanol and started to pull the terps. My goal was just to preserve as much terps as possible which is when we started getting those 17%'s.

We do not introduce terps back into our Co2 Oil.
I’ve been told other companies (i.e Farmer’s Friend in Oregon) gets up to 24% terps…
The viscosity is pretty good. Definitely moves a bit, I could take a video soon for more of an accurate answer The more terpy it obviously is less viscous but the Sour Grapes was probably the less viscous I’ve ever dealt with. Honestly made me a little nervous to send into testing :sweat_smile:

Edit: We run Super Critical. 1700-1800 and 110F-120F

If you don’t carbon scrub, that’s part of it, I’ve seen up to 10% increases in potency with just that. Depending on parameters, CO2 can grab practically every bit of non fibrous material from the biomass. Including but not limited to: esters, anthocyanins, residual sprays, sugars, chlorophyll, etc. Post processed CO2 oil should be in the 70-80% cannabinoid range.

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That’s what I thought, I researched that Co2 grabs a LOT of stuff…

Almost all of our oils are between 70%-77% total cannabinoids.
We had a Strawberry Kush that came out to 85% total and 77% THC with 6% terps and it was sooo :fire:

You say the Carbon Scrub will increase potency?
We’ve been pondering the idea of doing that in general for the “aesthetics” of the oil.

Absolutely, the scrub removes certain things from the oil, if flushed correctly you keep your cannabinoids, which adjusts your concentrations.

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Ooo, okay.
I’ll start playing around with that soon then!
Thank you.

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Interested if you ever found out what was going on with your oil? I’ve seen something similar recently in some batches that I have run.