Why is my oil so dark after ethanol recovery?

Hello everyone,

I extract with ethanol, and I’ve tried many different experiments with different types of material. Better material always comes out with a better color (Yellow, clear, Light Green tint) and with older material the color of the extracted tincture is darker, brownish black, and not as clear.

Regardless of the color of the tincture, after solvent recovery coming out of the rotovap the oil always comes out black/dark brown. With or without carbon scrub, color remediation or bleach, the color is always the same when the ethanol leaves the solvent. Is this supposed to be this way? I’ve seen photos of the oil some people post on here and I just can’t figure out how they get it so clear right after solvent recovery. Does anyone have any insights?

Thank you and enjoy the rest of your day.

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What temp are you recovering?

Why is this filed under distillation?

Pretty typical that EHO will look dark in bulk even if you started with a golden tincture.

It’s possible to have a nice color when spread thin though, or even broken down in 0.5 and 1g syringes.

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I’m sorry for putting it under distillation, I tried to tag it under hash and stuff no idea how it got to the wrong section. The recovery temperature I have set is 120F

Even when we spread it thin it looks pretty dark, are you saying that its normal for all of the oil to look dark because of the extraction solvent?

the high temps used to recover the ethanol will decarb (or at least partially decarb) the oil. decarb’ed crude will always be darker than when it isn’t decarb’ed…

Are you gonna be distilling the crude anyways? If so, the color of the crude doesn’t really matter, does it?

Try 85F Recovery temp. Or even 75F.

What equipment are you using?!?

If you haven’t read this thread: EHO Color Remediation do so, and at least some of the threads linked to it.

Especially the lost biologists tek

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Thank you I will give that a read

looks like we are going way higher than required, im just using a 5L solvent pro series recovery

Yes, I do distill all my oil, but since we’ve been getting a large supply of crude I want to try getting a well refined enough oil so that I can put it into cartridges as a full spectrum oil, but it seems to be way too dark for other’s liking. Just an experiment though

When going for the lightest possible product (EHO or BHO) without post processing through magic dirt, keeping temps as low as possible throughout the process is important.

Ethanol will always pull more color.

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Yeah you’re gonna have a hell of a time producing a light colored ethanol crude that is decarb’ed for vapes…
Like @cyclopath said, ethanol pulls a lot of color…Plus, it also has a much higher BP, so it requires much higher temps to purge than butane or propane. that exposure to higher temps will make the oil darker.

Cryo butane/propane extraction with an inline de-wax is the easiest way to make lighter colored crude without using powders… purge it at low temps to preserve the color… but if you are gonna put it in carts, you will have to at least partially decarb it…otherwise the THCa will recrystallize… but like I said above, decarbing will make the oil a bit darker, every time.

Get the taste right, then try educating your customer.

It’s usually an uphill battle.

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