So I had been playing with the idea of decarb in an inert gas filled pressure vessel when it occurred to me that I could do an essentially zero atmosphere decarb with crap I had at home. A normal pressure cooker will hit 15 psi over atmospheric pressure and that raises the boiling temp of water to 121C. A normal vacuum bag can't take the temps of a pressure cooker but there are special pouches called Retort Pouches that are designed for this. Want room temp stable home made chili in a flexible pouch cause you are a marginally sane prepper? These are also for you...


So here is a 50:50 mix of QWET oil with MCT ready to go in the pressure cooker:


Decarb kicks out 1 mole of CO2 per mole of THC so we can expect some outgassing and better size the bag appropriately. This was 15ml going in.



I let the water get to a rolling boil then clipped the pouch in place (Not that it is has no chance of direct contact with the bottom of the pot) and sealed it. Ran it for 20 min at max pressure and it puffed up like this as expected.



Here is the TLC of the results.

Lane 1: the first wash (no decarb)
Lane 2: the second wash (no decarb)
Lane 3: 2ul extract after decarb
Lane 4: 1ul extract after decarb

So the run went well and I had zero smell while doing it. Chilled the pouch and when I popped it open it had a essentially the same smell as it did going in. This seems like a good way to retain terpenes while decarbing (if that is something you care about) and to be confident about a decarb without expensive tools. Ultimately everything I used in this decarb is under $150 and if I wasn't using a massive pressure cooker, it would have been significantly cheaper.

-Eskander