QWET oil extraction

[jump117]

weak ethanol (151)

This is the main suspect. Certainly pulled a lot of water-soluble dirt.

 

[Gray Wolf]

This is the main suspect. Certainly pulled a lot of water-soluble dirt.

What Jump said.

Coconut oil is mostly non polar, so everything a polar solvent like ethanol extracts, won't redissolve in coconut oil.

It typically hasn't been enough for us to notice, so we just dissolved a sample of QWET in coconut oil to see how much was left behind, and there was nothing detectable, so that leads to the water, as Jump noted.

If you do a couple of QWET extraction on a batch of material using 190 proof, and after draining, before the alcohol drys out of the material, fill the container of material with water and shake well, you will see what I mean.

If you drain off that water alcohol mixture and evaporate away the liquid, you will end up with a reddish waxy lipid with some medicinal effects, but mostly inert ingredients.

 

[a6grow]

So basically with 151 I am screwed? Any other additional processing or steps that I can take?

 

[Gray Wolf]

So basically with 151 I am screwed? Any other additional processing or steps that I can take?

You could redissolve it in pentane or hexane, and water wash it, so as to drop out the polar elements. Check my thread on getting the green and waxes out.

 

[woolybear]

helpful people like mr. wolf bolster my faith in humanity. i got my bottle of 190 proof, haven't gotten around to washin' the herb yet. I will mark it as an action item for this week.

i think its the cheap side of me holding. see i have in my distant mind a desire to also distill alcohol, and the idea of evaporating away the 190 everclear hurts a little.

heh

 

[browntrout]

Is it possible to make non-toxic hash just by washing for 3 minutes, straining and leaving to evaporate in a pan with 95% ETHANOL?

 

[cyber echo]

Thanks for all the info in this thread mates.
Just pulled a few grams of amber..
Freezing the alcohol made all the difference btw..

 

[Gray Wolf]

Is it possible to make non-toxic hash just by washing for 3 minutes, straining and leaving to evaporate in a pan with 95% ETHANOL?

You can make non toxic hash oil that way, because ethanol isn't all that toxic, even if you leave some residuals.

After just simple evaporation, it will still contain some ethanol in trace amounts, unless you keep the puddle molten enough for the alcohol to escape.

 

[jump117]

So basically with 151 I am screwed? Any other additional processing or steps that I can take?

Improve the extract obtained by rather weak alcohol, was not easy.

The water contained in weak alcohol adds to extract components, insoluble in alcohol.
These substances are mixed with a good resin and form a dense plastic mass that looked like a hash,
which is then very reluctantly dissolved in strong alcohol.

I met this difficulty when trying to improve a bad extract that my friend prepared with vodka.

Water is only applicable to mechanical extraction, and it is not allowed in the chemical extraction.

 

[chef]

The alcohol will only hold so much oil until it hits saturation point, like GW pointed out. I used to know the aprox. ratio of bud/190, but can't remember.
Do you know GW?
I'm thinking saturation was around 75g oil per gallon of 190?
Of course, the bud/190 ratio depends on quality of bud.

You in Oregon? Love to take a class & talk shop!

Will be using as a base for tinctures/topicals/edibles.

What I was trying to ask is if I take say 4 batches of 100grams and run alcohol through batch 1, strain and set aside then take that same alcohol and run batch 2, strain and set aside and so forth.

Then do a second wash on all 4 batches again with the same alcohol on all 4

As a base for edibles and topicals, mixing the different pulls is less of an issue, than for vaporizing.

You can reuse the alcohol until it saturates, but as it saturates it becomes less effective as a solvent.

It is also super important to keep the temperature down, because the longer the alcohol is in contact with plant material, the more water solubles it will pick up. Running multiple batches through the same alcohol, would exacerbate that problem.

 

[Gray Wolf]

The alcohol will only hold so much oil until it hits saturation point, like GW pointed out. I used to know the aprox. ratio of bud/190, but can't remember.
Do you know GW?
I'm thinking saturation was around 75g oil per gallon of 190?
Of course, the bud/190 ratio depends on quality of bud.

You in Oregon? Love to take a class & talk shop!

Sorry no, we just cover the bud, plus a couple if inches.

Yup, Portland. Do drop by sometime!

 

[chef]

Luv to, will PM ya

I'll find out again on the saturation point. Good numbers to have.
Found out by adding an extra lb & barely any extra yield lol

I've been running 100g/2 5ths 190 for labs & that's below sat point, no matter how dank the material. Makes it easy to figure yield too, averaging 4:1 25% low23 high 29ish

 

[slimjoint]

i just did a 60g extraction, got about 8g, The results look identical to my absolutes

 

[jump117]

I'll find out again on the saturation point. Good numbers to have.

Even a very small amount of residual ethanol in concentrate changes it into a softer consistency, and then the liquid.

Therefore, it is not clear what can be said to be saturated in this context.

 

[chef]

By saturation... I meant that the alcohol will only pull/hold so much in solution.
After a certain point, you can add all the extra material you want & not increase your yield.
The alcohol has hit it's max concentration limit.

Does that make sense? I'n no chemist lol

I was going to mention to GW: If you've ever had an unusually large 2nd pull on material?
That's probably the cause/reason.

cheers

 

[jump117]

I asked Joe, our budding biochemist, to take a run at it.
In quick summary, before Joe’s response, “define soluble?”

Hey Gray Wolf!

I hope that Joe will help us to define the saturated resin solution in ethanol, if it exists at all.

 

[Gray Wolf]

Hey Gray Wolf!

I hope that Joe will help us to define the saturated resin solution in ethanol, if it exists at all.

OK, I ran it by the lad, who opines that when extracting with ethanol, that a 1:1 molar (50%) solution would be the maximum theoretically otainable and anything greater than 2:1 (33%) would be slow.

It looks like THC has a molar mass of 314.45 and EtOh 46.07 gm/mol.

 

[jump117]

Perhaps the proportion of 1:1 will be the point where the resin dissolved in ethanol goes into the resin with ethanol, dissolved in it?

 

[Gray Wolf]

Perhaps the proportion of 1:1 will be the point where the resin dissolved in ethanol goes into the resin with ethanol, dissolved in it?

A good point! Ethanol and cannabis oil will mix at any ratio, with either being the menstruum for the other. It just won't continue to extract after it reaches saturation.

It was just noted that I don't do math well medicated. 2:1 is actually 33% to one, instead of 25%, so I edited my previous post to reflect that.

 

[chef]

My little small batch RSO Reflux rig. Holds a QP.