I get that everyone likes hydrocarbons. If you really want to argue that use of hydrocarbons is a good thing for society, Im just not willing to go down that rabbit hole.
Ryan Lewis from Global Cannabinoids could definitely be off. Im not saying this guy is a guru or something, just an interesting snippet from my linkedin feed. Still, considering his company is doing relatively big business internationally, they are producing many products using distillation themselves, and that they have built a company around responding to the requests of their clients…perhaps some of what he predicted is worth considering.
Maybe it seems too futuristic to consider now, and Im not familiar with the various forms of water based extraction tech existing out there…however, i do know that there is a great deep intelligence to nature and the transmutation and concentration of element, and that any compound produced by crude methods using hydrocarbons or ethanol can be produced biologically. Water based extraction (and Im not talking about bubble hash/IWE!) is not mutually exclusive from producing various incredible dabbable products.
GRAS is something, but I was more referring to on a basic level, the toxicity and inedibility of any of these solvents, including ethanol, is very high compared to water. Yes I know you can die drinking water before anyone throws that out there.
There are many people all over the world involved in botanical extractions of all sorts. Distillation has its value, and still it’s wise to consider the possibility that, there may just be a better way, and you may not have to sacrifice any quality or enjoyment for it.
I agree
I wish for greener safer methods
But right Now it is what it is and not changing any time soon
And Now that the prices are dropping a lot if the incentive will be lost
The novel approaches in cannabinoids where worth a shot to try for the rewards would have been good
But thats all changing fast
I recently had a chance to review a popular Ethanol/Butane/Propane systems engieering peer review documentation, which included the manufactures SOP work instructions. My first take away was that there is a lot of things for the operator to remeber. So many ball valves and sequences to get it right. All of this happening behind metal that obstructs the view. From a human factors standpoint eroors seem inevitable.
Yeahhhhhh that’s not entirely true. I’m sure there are people here who would lose a part of thier happiness not extracting with hydrocarbons in a lab setting ever again.
The lab I work at is doing just this… everything about going to butane is a plus over making ethanol extract in the legal rec market in Washington…
After the vape scare disty is tanking. Only people really buying from us are out in the sticks, and aren’t necessarily at the forefront of the sales curve… other than that, it’s wholesale to companies making edibles.
Trying to make a dabbale etho sauce that’s comparable to propane or butane terpene wise is next to impossible in my book.
@cyclopath I agree. How can a company compete when other small business competitors are using the two systems below? It will be very hard if not impossible. Not to mention now small businesses are competing with players processing tons per day. HERE and HERE
I didn’t mean to give the impression previously that I have preference in one direction or the other. To be clear, I just like money and making good drugs that people enjoy and are safe using (and are safe to make) haha. I enjoy making pretty live resins and shatters and sauces and diamonds and all that fun stuff. At any rate, the thrill is gone and I no longer see the utility in defending to death any personal preference for making/using any particular product format. Hydrocarbon products are just bound to a lower throughput process that uses solvents of an inherently greater hazard level. As a career chemical engineer, this is less attractive to me since grand scale and safety are something of an aphrodisiac I’ve been trained to always show preference towards.
I agree that I can’t think of a superior solvent to butane/propane for a dabbable product unless you get into some true isolation/formulation type work to make a truly engineered product (which is certainly feasible but requires additional operations, but may permit a finer degree of quality control since you can guarantee a tighter product specification).
I do think its a shame that distillate has gotten such a bad rep because of the vape scare which arguably had little to do with the cannabinoids themselves. I think distillate has some amount of elegance to it from a strictly process point of view (you need not tell me distillate is generic as a product) - its the great equalizer since starting material doesn’t dictate final quality (i.e. a robust process). It allows farmers to not take a huge loss when their crops come out shitty or if they don’t sell right away and lose their terp value or if they want to avoid wasting out their trim. As a product, carts are as generic as can be but they’re certainly convenient for the not-so-dedicated consumer market. A lot of people who like cannabinoids on a casual basis don’t own rigs for one reason or another.
Instead of using pumps it is entirely possible and in fact potentially much simpler and more efficient to do a passive recovery even at larger scale.
see my instagram posts for more information and a run down of the refrigeration models we offer and how they should be used. (You will need to source an extractor and hook it up to our refrigeration system)
Sorry bud, I’m not going to hunt it down to show you the exact line in the documentation. I used to get paid for that type consulting of work.
I can guarantee you that it’s accurate though. Hell, just ask anyone with an OLCC license in Oregon running a hydrocarbon setup. It’s your business, so it’s in your best interest to check into that stuff for your own liability.
I was on the OLCC extract processor rules advisory committee 4-5 years ago now. I practically had the regs memorized. No passive systems in OR… And no janky pumps either (cmep/trs). Cheapest legal option is an MVP 6cfm.
I remember reading that years ago, but it’s my understanding that certain states are allowing hexane to be used for extraction.
I think the ‘clear’ guy is now running a larger facility with hexane as his main solvent in California? I could be mistaken…