Mysterious liquid in AI t40 coldtrap prepump from vacuum oven? (BHO)

Howdy friends.

So today I got a taste of what I thought were possibly terpenes but I wanted to post here for some consensus. Keep in mind, all product purged in this oven was PHO/BHO at temps between 89 and 120 degrees and the AI t40 cold trap was set to -40 at all times. Strains included conf. cheese, hindukush, jaeger, trainwreck, and some other misc small batches.

After a small cotton swab on the tip of my tongue I could very strongly taste what seemed to be a turpentine taste, but far from it. Hard to describe really. Very unpleasant and upset my stomach with even the slightest of a taste(tasting random lab substances is totally safe, right? ) To make things even more odd, I have a second substance that is inhomogeneous...likely water...? Heavier than whatever the smelly substance is on top.

While I have most cats here that would know anything about cold traps on an oven....Should I have this T40 set at anything other than -40..? No right? That one wolf who is gray had a swell new blob (blog?) that had an article with terpene boiling and condensing points I'm pretty sure. Someone might have to holler at him and let him know his website is uh...kaputt.

Much love to anyone that can help me answer some questions about this new piece of equipment. Other than the unknown substances that show up, it seems to be helping my welch diaphragm pump out and thats chill. Ha. Chill.

Peace.

OGG

You can still look up the old SPR site at archive.org if the new site isn't available
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://skunkpharmresearch.com

If it smells like turpentine. It could be the terpene pinene.

Turpentine is composed of terpenes, mainly the monoterpenes alpha-pinene and beta-pinene with lesser amounts of carene, camphene, dipentene, and terpinolene.

Click to expand...

From here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turpentine

PDX Dopesmoker said:

You can still look up the old SPR site at archive.org if the new site isn't available
https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://skunkpharmresearch.com

Click to expand...

Not looking for old SPR, graywolfs new blog called "The Alchemist Resource". Its actually full of some great articles that he took the time to write before opening the blog. But I will try to use wayback machine on that blog also, cheers.

It’s probably terps mixed with something else, AI warns about liquid oxygen with all their coldtraps so maybe it’s that, but I would think it’s unlikely.

OregrownGreen said:

Howdy friends.

So today I got a taste of what I thought were possibly terpenes but I wanted to post here for some consensus. Keep in mind, all product purged in this oven was PHO/BHO at temps between 89 and 120 degrees and the AI t40 cold trap was set to -40 at all times. Strains included conf. cheese, hindukush, jaeger, trainwreck, and some other misc small batches.

After a small cotton swab on the tip of my tongue I could very strongly taste what seemed to be a turpentine taste, but far from it. Hard to describe really. Very unpleasant and upset my stomach with even the slightest of a taste(tasting random lab substances is totally safe, right? ) To make things even more odd, I have a second substance that is inhomogeneous...likely water...? Heavier than whatever the smelly substance is on top.

While I have most cats here that would know anything about cold traps on an oven....Should I have this T40 set at anything other than -40..? No right? That one wolf who is gray had a swell new blob (blog?) that had an article with terpene boiling and condensing points I'm pretty sure. Someone might have to holler at him and let him know his website is uh...kaputt.

Much love to anyone that can help me answer some questions about this new piece of equipment. Other than the unknown substances that show up, it seems to be helping my welch diaphragm pump out and thats chill. Ha. Chill.

Peace.

OGG

View Image
View Image

Click to expand...

I have a fair bit of experience of using an oven with condensers and cold traps. However, all of my terpene extractions have been with pulverized flowers and not starting with an existing extract. I also start with material that I grew myself and know that it is pure from pesticides and other contaminants.

So, you are using a cold trap during purge? It is very likely that you did isolate some type of terpene or terpenes with boiling points in that purging range. Most monoterpenes in cannabis have a boiling point well over purging temps.

How much BHO was used? What was starting weight of material? How much terpenes were collected?

I do terpene extractions at far higher temperatures than required for purge. This always generates significant water based hydrosols. I take collected terpene and hydrosol mixture, add to separatory funnel and chill funnel at ~2C for 12+ hours. Terpene layer separates to top and hydrosol is drained off the bottom.

I would assume that your BHO has a bit of water (or water comes from humidity in your ambient air) that is being collected in your trap as well, and this what is below your terpene layer.

Terpenes are crazy volatile, and even if you condense them and collect, they tend to re-volatize (especially if too cold which causes sublimation) and carried down the line under vacuum. My solution is to use multiple stages (currently 5) of condensers and traps and alternate trap, condenser and receiver temps from 2C to -78C using ice water condensing and dry ice cooling baths with mixtures of glycol and alcohol. Not sure about your AI cold trap settings.

I hope this helps a bit.

WFF

JimmyJamieJames said:

It’s probably terps mixed with something else, AI warns about liquid oxygen with all their coldtraps so maybe it’s that, but I would think it’s unlikely.

Click to expand...

Liquid oxygen is blue (and insanely dangerous), and I would indeed say that at -40C there is no way that it can form. I think that it would take temps significantly lower than -100C under very high vacuum.

WaterFarmFan said:

I do terpene extractions at far higher temperatures than required for purge. This always generates significant water based hydrosols. I take collected terpene and hydrosol mixture, add to separatory funnel and chill funnel at ~2C for 12+ hours. Terpene layer separates to top and hydrosol is drained off the

Click to expand...

Hey thanks for the detailed response. Very cool! Just recently visited an essential oil farm in asia, you might find these pictures interesting! Let me know if you ever want to chat about it. Cheers friend.