Stripping carbon

OilHead

Member
So I was washing some material the other day and the solvent got stuck in my column, causing it to soak to the point where it picked up a ton of carbon. I'm wondering if I can just put the dark oil back in the column and wash it through a small micron lab filter and strip the carbon by doing so. I know I can winterize it but do not have the equipment to do so at the moment. What do you guys think?
 

canadian1969

Well-Known Member
if it is actually carbon (first I have heard of this, but I dont blast through a column) a carbon dust particle is approx 0.2 to 10 microns. So there is your filter size, 0.2 microns. I am at struggle to understand what is actually going on though. Were you blasting through a column with Butane?
 

OilHead

Member
Not sure where the carbon came from?? Over soaking usually picks up color from anthrocyanin color pigments or chlorophyll, neither of which readily filters out.
Winterization won't filter out the color constituents? I know it can be done with fractional distillation.
 

bez420

Well-Known Member
Wtf? They say that all I have to do is set my jars out in the sunlight for a few hours, and it will get rid of all that green chlorophyll?
 

canadian1969

Well-Known Member
Wtf? They say that all I have to do is set my jars out in the sunlight for a few hours, and it will get rid of all that green chlorophyll?
That's one way, and you do take a potency hit, although I couldn't tell personally. I did this with an ISO run this summer and only left it in the sun for maybe 20 minutes, went from dark green/black to dark amber. Exposure time will depend on the quantity (in my case 250ml in a 500ml mason jar). If I had to guess maybe 5-10% hit (so if you had a 20% THC, end result would be 18%). Test it with a small batch and see. I would love to see a side by side with potency testing at the end. In any event I can confirm that this does work. However! All that extra plant matter and water is still in there, so its really just for aesthetics. It doesn't turn your extract into a pristine absolute.
 

Fadedawg

Well-Known Member
Wtf? They say that all I have to do is set my jars out in the sunlight for a few hours, and it will get rid of all that green chlorophyll?
It doesn't get rid of the chlorophyll, it just breaks it down in to its constituents, which aren't green. UV also breaks down some of the THC into CBN.
 

BobCajun

Well-Known Member
Ironically, carbon may be the best bet, since it actually absorbs the chlorophyll rather than just converting it to something else that still has magnesium in it. I'm guessing smoking magnesium ain't enjoyable.
 
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