I am extracting about 2 gal of powder bud leaf with everclear. I need to know how much everclear can be re-used until totally satauated. Currently do a qt. extract at about 95% recovery. So, the ? is: how many times can I use this recovered alcohol before it is totally saturated....Also, using 1/2 qt leaf and filling the bottle with everclear. Shake twice daily. sits 2 weeks before extraction.
Saturation of ethanol with cannibis
- Thread starter docron69
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cannabineer
Ursus marijanus
How are you recovering the solvent?
If you're simply pouring used, dark alcohol onto new leaf, you'll never reach equilibrium (if that's what you mean by saturation) because alcohol will dilute the cannabinoids.
So you could keep using the solvent for batch after batch, and it'll keep getting higher in concentration, and lower in volume, until you can't squeeze any at all out of the latest batch of leaf.
The more relevant question would be "how many times can I reuse the same batch of alcohol before I hit diminishing returns?"
That depends on how efficient your mass recovery of alcohol is from the stewed leaf, on the cost of that leaf, and on the cost of the alcohol.
What I would do is let the leaf steep (or better, adopt oakley84's quick-wash tech) and wash it on a filter with a bit of virgin (or distillatively recovered) ethanol to push my recovery.
If you wash your leaf with alcohol until colorless, and if you're good at it, you'll get a constant volume of extract ever increasing in concentration ... until it just gets goopy. cn
If you're simply pouring used, dark alcohol onto new leaf, you'll never reach equilibrium (if that's what you mean by saturation) because alcohol will dilute the cannabinoids.
So you could keep using the solvent for batch after batch, and it'll keep getting higher in concentration, and lower in volume, until you can't squeeze any at all out of the latest batch of leaf.
The more relevant question would be "how many times can I reuse the same batch of alcohol before I hit diminishing returns?"
That depends on how efficient your mass recovery of alcohol is from the stewed leaf, on the cost of that leaf, and on the cost of the alcohol.
What I would do is let the leaf steep (or better, adopt oakley84's quick-wash tech) and wash it on a filter with a bit of virgin (or distillatively recovered) ethanol to push my recovery.
If you wash your leaf with alcohol until colorless, and if you're good at it, you'll get a constant volume of extract ever increasing in concentration ... until it just gets goopy. cn
Great response! in answer to your ?s, I am getting 97%+ return of alcohol. Cost of product is irrevavent actually as is considered "waste" by me. Everclear is $28 a 1.75L. Currently not distilling to get the raw but keeping everything (almost) airtight. So, what I hear you saying is that it is good to goopy? Of course considering using new alc. on used leaf untill colorless, means it takes a number of runs before I get to optimum concentration. Therefore, a seady flow of new with recovered being used as the starter COULD produce, if enough is avail., and unending supply of "syrup" type alcohol. Am I getting it? Thanks for your coments!
cannabineer
Ursus marijanus
If you're getting 97+% return, that is amazing. With a different solvent, I am doing well to get even an 80% recovery.
As for goopy, it was a figure of speech. So long as you do a rinse of your filtered material to get as much as possible of the color out, you could in theory continue indefinitely. But after processing a dozen or so runs, I'd call that extract ready for the next step (stripping solvent). Mind you, these are estimates. Experience is a better teacher than some goofy bear guy on the far side of the Internet.
cn
As for goopy, it was a figure of speech. So long as you do a rinse of your filtered material to get as much as possible of the color out, you could in theory continue indefinitely. But after processing a dozen or so runs, I'd call that extract ready for the next step (stripping solvent). Mind you, these are estimates. Experience is a better teacher than some goofy bear guy on the far side of the Internet.
cn