Propane the "ultimate solvent" for extraction

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fractal

fractal

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I was reading up on the coldfinger extractor and found this on the edenlabs.org website.

"Propane- There is a little known school of thought in the natural products industry which believes that propane is the ultimate solvent for extracting botanicals. Eden Labs has tested this theory thoroughly and we have come to the conclusion that there is something to it. Although propane cannot be as widely manipulated through temp. and pressure as CO2, it produces very similar results, sometimes better. It has an amazingly small loading ratio 1-4 volumes and it can be recovered quickly. This means much faster production times. It leaves no toxic residues and it is an all natural, organic solvent. The material data safety sheet, MSDS, says it is harmless except for the fact that is flammable. Because it works at relatively low pressures, 80-150 psi, the technology costs much less than a full supercritical CO2 system and can be very competitive in terms of quality and speed of production.

The downsides to propane is that it is highly flammable so precautions such as sparkless rooms with powerful ventilation are a must. The fact that is is not widely understood or accepted can also be an issue.

Butane/IsoButane- In some cases where propane doesn't do the job, butane works better. It has all the pros and cons of propane and requires identical equipment for utilization."


Is all propane odorized, or is it easy to obtain clean propane? I don't think it would be hard at all to make a large tube to contain your material, fit a screen at the bottom and a valve up top, and let it rip. You could catch the oil and propane in a glass pan and turn the propane valve shut when the pan is full.
 
Texas Kid

Texas Kid

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My ninja, now we are talking...

The only problem I have been running into is how to restrict and maintain the pressure at the screen exit end of the cyclinder. You have to restrict the flow to maintain the pressure but then you sacrafice the flow velocity to get the material to leave the cylinder.. I looked at doin it just like BHO but the pressure still is an issue..

Still workin on it,,,thanks for the info.

Tex
 
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Hashmasta-Kut

Hashmasta-Kut

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if you use colibri butane you are using propane as well, as it is 17% propane.
 
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fractal

fractal

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Now that HMK noted there is propane in Colibri, I definitely prefer Colibri to vector. Colibri normally carries through better aromas than vector im my experience. Although there are variables that could affect it also.
 
Hashmasta-Kut

Hashmasta-Kut

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does vector not contain the 17% propane?


i kinda doubt it but am not sure on that. i know the colibri is made in the UK by keen marketing, who markets about 10 brands of butane, and i believe all of those are the same ratio, of 51% n-butane, 32% iso-butane, and 17% propane. i dont know where vector is produced, but it is someone else i am pretty sure.
 
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Z

zoeronerer

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its got distillates and scent in it man..............from what i have been told it is always mixed with the rotten egg scent.....otherwise its illegal in the us, or its like that in most states maybe not all........not a fave
 
THECALI.KID

THECALI.KID

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is this true all butane has that rotten egg scent in the USA i herd also they have to put it in their to detect leaks happy grow The Cali. Kid
 
Hrpuffnstuff

Hrpuffnstuff

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US propane does... like mentioned above , Saftey reasons they add sulfur for smell for leak detection
Using US propane sounds sketchy
 
S

Smokey1InSoCal

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I've used 6 oz. cans of 'King' fuel with pretty good results, it's triple refined. Biggest problem I've had is how to get the oil out of the Pyrex and into the little bottle afterward. I scrape it with a Razor Blade but it is a challenge for me and I waste a lot getting it in the bottle. I should start a thread on just that subject... :-)
 
fractal

fractal

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I saw some medicinal oils being made with Hexane, recently. In a dream. It totally wasn't real, how the Hexane product smelled and looked like butane-made honey oil. In my dream, the Hexane managed to retain the majority of essential terpenes or at least enough so that in evaporation I could detect very delicate notes of the different strains being extracted.

I awoke from this dream thinking that with a vacuum distillation, Hexane would probably make a very, very clean product of the highest quality and with the most possible aromas carried through. Based on what I have tried and am aware of, but still I think that CO2 product is the ultimate way to do it.
 
Hrpuffnstuff

Hrpuffnstuff

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I've used 6 oz. cans of 'King' fuel with pretty good results, it's triple refined. Biggest problem I've had is how to get the oil out of the Pyrex and into the little bottle afterward. I scrape it with a Razor Blade but it is a challenge for me and I waste a lot getting it in the bottle. I should start a thread on just that subject... :-)

King is bad...... look at your oil with a 20X lupe you will see small fiber like particles .... they will spark when you burn it.. butane
King is not filtered enough

colibret or vector is very clean
 
Y

YoungDizZle

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"King is bad...... look at your oil with a 20X lupe you will see small fiber like particles .... they will spark when you burn it." good to know but colibri is only 3x like king is 3x wouldnt they be just as clean? i smell no rotten eggs all i smell is the sweet smell of chibbahh. wish i could get colibri to try but not gonna use king why bother got vector
 
Graywolf

Graywolf

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I saw some medicinal oils being made with Hexane, recently. In a dream. It totally wasn't real, how the Hexane product smelled and looked like butane-made honey oil. In my dream, the Hexane managed to retain the majority of essential terpenes or at least enough so that in evaporation I could detect very delicate notes of the different strains being extracted.

I awoke from this dream thinking that with a vacuum distillation, Hexane would probably make a very, very clean product of the highest quality and with the most possible aromas carried through. Based on what I have tried and am aware of, but still I think that CO2 product is the ultimate way to do it.

I extract using hexane. I fill a wide mouth quart fruit jar 3/4ths full of plant material, and cover the top of the material with an inch of hexane.

I keep the jar in a cool location and shake periodically for the next 12 hours, after which I decant through a fine wire strainer and a coffee filter into an evaporation dish with a fan blowing over it.

It produces an oil similar to BHO and I redisolve it in Everclear and then cook it off to decarboxylate it and drive off the residual hexane.

It has a slightly different taste and effect than BHO, but is about of equal potency.

Here is a picture of a hexane blowoff where I used the hexane to steal the cannabinoids from alcohol and water, by agitating them together and then using a sepratory funnel.

The alcohol and water drained off with all the undesirable components, and the hexane ended up with the cannabinoids.

GW
 
Hexane blow off
P

PureSugar

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Now that HMK noted there is propane in Colibri, I definitely prefer Colibri to vector. Colibri normally carries through better aromas than vector im my experience. Although there are variables that could affect it also.

does vector not contain the 17% propane?

Vector contains:

60% n-Butane, (Tetrane)
29% iso-Butane (2-Methylpropane, Trlmethylethane)
11% propane (LPG, Dimethylmethane, Propylhydride)
Source Vector Website from the Vector® BUTANE GAS REFILL CARTRIDGE MATERIAL SAFETY DATA SHEET pdf.
http://www.vectorkgm.com/catalog/butane/Vector_Gas_MSDS.pdf


Really ? , I don't smell that crap in my vector

It's only added to propane that is sold as "pure" propane.

HMK- somehow I missed you in the multi quote... Vector is made in Korea. Makes Colibri sounds more and more tempting. I've never seen the big cans in the US though.

I think people pay too much attention to marketing... Yes Vector claims to be refined a MINIMUM of 5X, Colibri "only" 3x, and King is "Triple Refined" does that mean King is as good as Colibri...NOPE!

So what does all this really mean? There are many ways to refine Butane (I'm not a chemist or even pretend to know much about chemistry) but I can read and do know that different methods of refinement can allow different impurities to be present in the final product. The important thing is not how many times something is refined it's how clean is the end product.
 
convex

convex

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Liquid petroleum products such as natural gas, propane, cooking butane to name a few are essentally odourless.

In Canada and the US Ethyl mercapatin is added to these fuels to give it the 'egg' odour.
This is mandated by law as an added safety feature for leak detection.

What I find odd is that lighter butane is uncented, yet the cylinders used for chafing dishes and cooking are scented.
 
P

PureSugar

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What I find odd is that lighter butane is uncented, yet the cylinders used for chafing dishes and cooking are scented.

I'm going to make a guess here but, seems like butane sold for lighters would pose an added health risk to an already potentially fatal gas that is consumed when lighting a cigar, pipe, or whatever people wanna smoke.

Ethyl mercapatin in cooking fuel is a good thing if you have a leak becasue you can smell the leak and then you know you better put out that joint til you fix the leak, seriously though you know to be careful since you can smell an extremely flammable gas that otherwise is almost odorless.

I also think cooking gases are more likely to leak than lighter butane based on the way and amounts used under normal or intended uses.
 
Dank Sinatra

Dank Sinatra

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sad, i hope we find a clean source of propane, i live b mexico, maybe they have some down there :)
 
Graywolf

Graywolf

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Propane used for heating purposes in the US will have Ethyl Mercaps added for leak detection. Tough to get out and has a sensory threshold of 2 ppb.

Pure propane without mercaps is available through airgas suppliers.

Propane is a simple alkane containing only three carbons and has more water solubility than butane with four carbons. It will pick up more chlorophyll and plant alkaloids than butane will.

If butane is not available, pentane with 5 carbons is the first alkane that is completely insoluble in water and would be a better choice.

We use a lot of hexane, which has six carbons, in our processing, but extract most of our oil with butane, which we recycle.
 

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