Distill thca from hemp under high vacuum. Is it possible?

Hi,

I have been thinking about making concentrates for a long time.

I'm still at the beginning of my learning curve.

In my country its illegal to grow weed that have more than 0.2% THC content, so it seems if I can clone a mother plant that can't produce more than 0.2%, I could actually grow hectares of it, that would be a lot of THC and a crapload of CBD, terpenes, fibers, hurd, etc. I could keep the THC(A), some terpenes and CBD and sell the rest with the remaining useful stuff. If I can avoid getting caught processing THC then this could work on paper.

In my mind this scenario could work (maybe because I don't have much experience in chemistry so far):
- harvest material and dry it on dry ice
- grind to dust mix into hexane or possibly DCM?
- preform fractional distillation under high vacuum(so thca will boil below the decarb temp) to separate THCA, CB*, terpenes(individually) with all the solvents recovered.

Could this be done efficiently?

I'm still researching methods, but I realized it would be faster with some pointers from you.

Thanks.

"- preform fractional distillation under high vacuum(so thca will boil below the decarb temp) to separate THCA, CB*, terpenes(individually) with all the solvents recovered."

To get the THC-A to 'boil' you'd have to get it to melt to come over during distillation, and THC-A doesn't melt, it decarboxylates straight into THC.

Search THC-A, no melting point listed.


Good creative thinking, just not enough facts to play with.

I think You'd be better off growing high thc varieties.


What are the penalties for growing?


What are the penalties for possession of a shit load of thc?


Which carries a bigger sentence?

SkyHighLer: Thanks for the answer, I still have ~everything to learn.

Would my described method work if I would collect THC instead of THC-A?

As I imagine now:
1, Harvest, dry on dry ice, grind to dust, mix to hexane/DCM/ethanol
2, Use this without filtering as is in the still. Is that okay?
3, Run still with a magnetic stirrer under vacuum, take fractions for everything extractable incl. THC, CBD, individual terpenes, solvent(s).
But as you can see this is still the same idea from before, how super wrong is it?
I think there is a reason they use steam distillation for terpenes, so I would need to collect before step 3, by other means, like steam distillation? Why is that?

Utilizing a centrifuge for separation? Has that been tried?

How efficient of an extractor a rosin press can be if strong enough? Tons of hemp would be easier to process if the trade off is acceptable.

I have just read your post about THE SUMMIT ACIDIC EXTRACTION, I "sort" of get it what is it supposed to be, I think I can get my skills up to the necessary level someday, but I need THC rich extract for this. Right? What exactly 85% efficiency means in this case?

Actually you answered the question in the title, should I make a new thread now?

Sorry for the overwhelming amount of questions.

MJPassion: For growing under 5 plants is considered small quantity and rarely carries a sentence, if its the first time, but if the plants are already flowering they will test it for THC content and if you have more than 3g of pure THC altogether then you can go to jail for like 2-8 years, possession is exactly the same, they test your stuff and multiply.

If they find a scale and/or packaging materials the prosecution will push for a sentence with intent to sell, and that's a sentence which adds 5+ years to the jail time. Also we have "preparation of a crime" on the books here (which is rare around the world and can be used by the court unfairly), it's 1.5 years max if I remember correctly, although its rarely used, buy they have it as an option.

Actually because of the legal state described above, my country faces a synthetic THC analog epidemic, cause they are legal until they are listed and assholes make tons of money spraying ditch weed. The real weed you can get here is poorly grown, not flushed, not dried properly, uncured and cost as much as good weed in an Amsterdam coffee shop, if you are unlucky it will have pesticides and other contaminants. My country is also have tons of alcoholics, we are in the top 10, and the government seems to promote drinking and smoking cigarettes cause these are in the hands of oligarchs.

I would love to grow my own weed indoors, but I'm scared, the police will not give a damn about any right I might have, they search properties unlawfully all the time and get the paperwork later and lie about it.

Plants that has less than .2% of THC considered industrial hemp and it's totally legal, and I guess it could be a good business to sell cbd, make electrodes etc. Also I can get access to a lot of quality farmland.

zanog said:

SkyHighLer: Thanks for the answer, I still have ~everything to learn.

Would my described method work if I would collect THC instead of THC-A?

As I imagine now:
1, Harvest, dry on dry ice, grind to dust, mix to hexane/DCM/ethanol
2, Use this without filtering as is in the still. Is that okay?
3, Run still with a magnetic stirrer under vacuum, take fractions for everything extractable incl. THC, CBD, individual terpenes, solvent(s).
But as you can see this is still the same idea from before, how super wrong is it?
I think there is a reason they use steam distillation for terpenes, so I would need to collect before step 3, by other means, like steam distillation? Why is that?

Utilizing a centrifuge for separation? Has that been tried?

How efficient of an extractor a rosin press can be if strong enough? Tons of hemp would be easier to process if the trade off is acceptable.

I have just read your post about THE SUMMIT ACIDIC EXTRACTION, I "sort" of get it what is it supposed to be, I think I can get my skills up to the necessary level someday, but I need THC rich extract for this. Right? What exactly 85% efficiency means in this case?

Actually you answered the question in the title, should I make a new thread now?

Sorry for the overwhelming amount of questions.

Click to expand...

If you throw oil that hasn't been cleaned up already in the short path distillation (SPD) boiling flask you'll have crap accumulate in the flask as it heats up, and the stuff coming over will be crap, but you could do it.

Here's one of the main short path distillation threads, The Clear, I suggest some reading before starting another thread,

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=331166


Btw, welcome to ICMAG Forums!!