My name is Billie Jo, I am a Lab technician within a THC extraction & manufacturing Laboratory. I have three year experience working with CBD Cannabis oil, from growing our crop to running a short path AI distillation unit. In the last year I have started working with THC Cannabis and working with some updated equipment. During the past few months of trying to dial in my method and feel I could really use some advice from like minded people.
Ethanol extraction- Testing at 79% thc/ 88% cannabinoids
We are running material for 10 mins in a centrifuge @ -22C with ethanol @ -45C, to Filtration running through Charcoal, DE, and 2um Paper filter, to a 20L Roto Evaporator ( WB @ 50C, at 90RPM’s and as much vac as possible without over heating the chiller), then to Decarb station (heating to 90C for 1 hour or until no bubble appear to remove remaining ethanol before going into a wipe film distillation unit.
I know these are not bad test numbers, my concern is the remaining 10-12% of plant matter and not knowing how to get this out of the crude.
Decarb question: during decarb after roto evaporator, the fluffing is always something i seem to fight on THC or CBD oil, is there any good way to do this without making so many dishes or messes. Haha
Any and all advice would be amazing and very helpful thank you!
What are you using to stir your crude during decarb? Overhead stirrers are the most reliable. If by fluffing you mean too vigorous bubbling the overflows the pot, there are too this you can do. Increase your temp from 90 → 100 or more, the thinner the fluid the easier it is to break up the bubbles. When the “Fluff” starts to rise, max out the speed on your overhead stirrer as this will break up the bubbles and settle things down. But don’t walk away! As soon as the bubbles disperse, turn the stirrer back down or you’ll have a real mess on your hands! I know it sounds contrary to turn to speed up but trust me, it works. I’ve been doing THC winterize/decarb/WFD for three years myself.
Also, don’t just rely on the “no more bubbles” method for knowing when your decarb is done. Do this…
So sorry i didn’t mention that, as this is my final step in the process I have been leaning more towards a mistake at the beginning side.
I use a 4 inch wipe film distillation unit. I run full vac, with temperatures all varying on this machine for each pass. On this unit they recommend 2-3 passes each time purifying/polishing passes as many reference this differently. 1st pass reclaims the 1% ethanol remaining in the crude, 2nd reclaims Terpenes and 3rd polish is to separate THC from the rest of the oil.
Oh this makes me so excited to see, ok so i use the magnetic stir bar, but have looked into the overhead stir bars and love the idea. The dots and color change to identify is amazing! I am so grateful for this advice thank you so much!
I never need more than 2 passes. One at 1.0 x 10-1Torr for volatile/terpene strip. One pass with the additional in line diffusion pump at 7.5 x 10-4 Torr. Without a full decarb you won’t be able to achieve these vacuum parameters. I don’t use a s Pope (ours is Precision) so your SOP may be different.
Strip run 150C Evap., 20C Condenser. For polish, 162C, 80 Condenser serves me well.
Also, since it’s going to distillate, no need to worry about losing or degrading terps. Kick that decarb temp up, open pot and nearly all your EtOH will vanish as well.
Thank you so much, that is reassuring and makes a lot of since. I worry so much about decarb but that advice is so helpful n should allow me to be a little more efficient.
Decarb your oil in a heated reactor under vacuum. Take it to 150C until there is a noticeable decrease in activity (i.e. gas formation/bubbling, and condensation of volatiles.) This will homogenize your oil and remove all the volatile compounds before going into the still.
It’s just not necessary. A good rotary vane pump pulling at 7.6 X 10-1 torr at 150C is capable or stripping all terps/volatiles. Even with a good cold trap some volatiles can pass through which are detrimental to a diffusion pump.
thank you, I recently got in a disagreement with a colleague of mine who thinks we should always run on full vacuum even during a volatile strip. Nice to see I am not the only one who thinks this way.