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Ideas to remove color from oil?

Our current process is to extract via CO2, winterize twice with ethanol to remove wax, then pull out ethanol via rotovape. Although our oil is a nice viscosity, we still get a relatively dark (brown-orange) color. I'm looking for ideas to help remove some more color. I've been told distillation, but any other thoughts?

Thanks

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Comments

  • 6 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • Activated carbon is a good way to remove color from extract, although you do lose cannabinoids in the process. You'll do this after you've filtered your waxes, but before you distill ethanol. Add AC, stir it for a while and then filter that. You can repeat until the desired color is present.

  • Thank you, I will give that a try.

  • Repeating the carbon process until the desired color is reached can be counter productive. Lighter color could just mean you’re taking out product. I don’t have a clear answer for this either but too many carbon filtrations can damage yield and potency for little benefit.
  • well, I tried with cold extract/ethanol mix and no change. I did again with warm (100 F) and it got darker from the charcoal.

  • Most likely you are doing one of the following things wrong: you are using the wrong type of carbon, you are using the wrong size of carbon, you are not using enough carbon, your residence time is too short, you are not agitating enough or you are running your carbon through a column instead of agitating, your tincture is not dilute enough, your preprocessing is deficient ie you still have lots of wax in your tincture.

    You should not have significant loss due to carbon adsorption, if you do you are doing one or several things wrong.

    Here is a link to tried and true carbon: https://sambocreeck.com/collections/consumables/products/activated-carbon

  • I came across this same kind of question with some other peers while in Vegas. One option is to use a lower proof of ethanol in order to avoid absorbing non cannabinoid compounds that may give you the darker colors. i.e. Chlorophyll and other water solubles. This can be done at the same time as winterization, or can be done after the waxes have been filtered. This came to my attention because in Alaska we do not have 190 Proof Everclear to use in a crunch we only have 151 proof. I noticed a difference in my extracts in AK vs. in Washington while keeping everything else pretty constant. This method, unlike carbon washing, will not decrease your cannabinoid count.

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