Rotovaps for QWET/QWISO?

[herbivore21]

Anyone ever used a rotary evaporator to make their hash oil? I am seriously considering looking into the legality of owning one and if it is legal, getting one. The machines, regularly used in science labs are made to evaporate solvents to recover anything in the solution and then recondense the solvent vapors into liquid form.

For those playing from home, your iso, or better yet, ethanol (which is taxed like you were drinking it in most parts of the world) will now become almost everlasting! Even better, your hash making becomes significantly more automated, and safer too!

They are serious lab equipment, the cheapest I have seen one able to be procured for would be around $500 on ebay, with new ones fetching $1000-$5000 quite easily.

However, I'd love to hear from anyone with experience as to how it goes for our particular application?

 

[vap999]

I thought rotary evaporators were most or best used in a herbal context for fractional distillation separation/purification of similar vaporizing temperature range liquids, such as essential oils, similar to petrochemicals (oil refining). Here, I'm referring to purifying already rather pure oils to molecular components, ideally without any solvents present. Rather, the essential oil is boiled and vapor fractions that tend to condense at different temperatures or rise to different heights in a column are collected and condensed. Rotary evaporators are high volume/mass, high efficiency, controlled-temperature vapor generators with research and manufacturing uses far beyond solvent cleaning and recycling.

Isn't this a classic method for separating/purifying such things as complex terpenoid mixtures, before modern chromatography? How would a company (where fully legal) take solvent extracted oil (ethanol, butane, ether, whatever) and then further purify desired single isomers at any decent manufacturing scale? Isn't this, separation of very similar structure organics, the primary use for rotary evaporator?

 

[herbivore21]

I have read about it being used in chromatography. All the technology and hardware used to make concentrates are very new to me, I very much live in the dark continent when it comes to all things green! You can't even buy concentrates here from dealers generally speaking. Herb is usually shocking quality, not cured, barely even dried, picked prematurely, completely squashed trichomes, very little smell. It is a pretty sorry state of affairs, hence my newfound interest in oils. Am I right to imagine that oils made with a rotovap would leave much less margin for error in the removal of solvents?

 

[4tokin]

A rotary evaporator is ideal tool for removing the remnant amounts of alcohol and water from ethanol washes.
Place the evaporated ethanol oil in the evaporator and then vacuum seal the flask .
Once the flask is heated and rotating the oil starts to thicken up and starts to fold over itself.
In this process, it seems to force the last of the ethanol out of the oil and then it reaches a point in which there is nothing for the remaining moisture/water to bond to and you get the water from the ethanol dropping out of suspension and pools alongside the ethanol concentrate.
At this point it can be thin filmed in a refrigerator for final drying to achieve absolute shatter.

I know old post, I found it while looking for some thing else which I have now forgotten.

 

[vap999]

Yes, rotary evaporators are incredibly efficient at removing volatile solvent residues, but that is easy, a relative waste, even trivial, compared to what I understand they are most useful for - fractional distillation of essential oils, where you can isolate fractions having specific vaporization/boiling points, such as different cannabinoids and isomers of THC. Just imagine being able to isolate and mix and match THC isomers, cannabinoids, terpenes, etc. And if you are getting this extreme, including risks of fire/explosion and have the other needed lab.-like infrastructure/equipment and money to spend on this stuff, you may as well also do some liquid chromatography. Some of the newer small-scale counter-current chromatography equipment might be relevant.

But obviously, this chemistry lab. stuff in not going to be cost-effective. None of this is new at all, and if it were relevant to applications such as oil manufacture, it would already be in wide use and we'd all know about it.

 

[4tokin]

I would like to have a lab to tinker in but I have to make do with what I have in my shed and kitchen.
All I was aiming for was refinement of my ethanol washes.
From what I have found evaporated ethanol oil can contain around 15/20% water based on volume and to see that separate from the oil is a wonderful thing.
By using this method when the water separates it pulls out other water based impurities that would otherwise be left behind with normal evaporation techniques.
I would like to take it a lot further but that is out of my price range and beyond my talents.

 

[Dragpo]

Some great equipment here: https://edenlabs.com/processes/coldfinger-extraction

http://www.seattlebusinessmag.com/article/sales-are-soaring-eden-labs