Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Butane extraction of something non-drug related.

ficolas - 4-6-2017 at 10:05

I just got a broken kitchen torch, with a pretty nice aluminium small tank for the butane. I thought about emptying it, passing air through it, and then cutting the top off, to then add a clamped washer, to have a small tank to make a butane extraction. However, looking arround the internet, the only thing I find about butane extractions is for THC...
What can I extract with it?

Even when refining the search to remove some words, I still find drug related extractions.
https://www.google.es/search?q=butane+extraction+-thc+-weed+...

[Edited on 4-6-2017 by ficolas]

Big Boss - 4-6-2017 at 10:09

Caffeine although that is drug related in a way.
Try extracting essential oils

ficolas - 4-6-2017 at 10:12

Quote: Originally posted by Big Boss  
Caffeine although that is drug related in a way.
Try extracting essential oils

Ilegal drug related I mean.
Caffeine could be good. Acording to a thread here in SM, I would also get some oils. Maybe by mixing the oils with water, I can get the caffeine to dissolve in water after the extraction, and then separate and boil the water off?
Why is green coffee usually used for caffeine extraction? What would happen if I used toasted cofee?
Essential oils may be cool, I think im going to just get every good smelling plant in my garden, and try to extract whatever from it, to then attempt to identify and purify whatever is in the extraction.

[Edited on 4-6-2017 by ficolas]

Crowfjord - 4-6-2017 at 11:16

Butane should extract all sorts of nonpolar things like terpines, steroids/phytosterols, fats, squalene, phenylpropanoids, and so forth depending on what you decide to extract. Culinary herbs and spices are always fun and make nice smelling extracts.

I think green coffee is used for extraction because it gives a higher yield of caffeine. Caffeine is either destroyed or sublimed in the heat of the roasting process, so roasted coffee has less than green coffee. This is also why very dark roast coffee like espresso has less caffeine than light roast coffee. You can definitely get caffeine from roasted coffee though - I've extracted from tea before and that has something like a third the amount of regular roasted coffee.

[Edited on 4-6-2017 by Crowfjord]

ficolas - 4-6-2017 at 13:36

So, the tank has a screw, thats pretty nice. No need to do any washer business, just unscrew it, maybe add some teflon if it starts leaking.

however, I found something that I dont know why its there, foam, and a spring.
The spring, may be to keep foam from... expanding for some reason? I have no idea. I guess removing it will be no problem, but if any of you know why it could be there there so I can be sure? :)

Also, there is a tube inside the tank, which purpose I think its to stop it from filling more than 2-3cm, I may want to shorten that.

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ficolas - 8-6-2017 at 16:13

First try with coffee was a mess, I managed to get a couple drops of oil, however, the oil has a unpleasant burnt scent to it. I also got inpatient, and opened the whole thing, not only the valve (wtf was I thinking?) so, as expected, the liquid butane jumped and I got my hand full of coffee oil. My hand smells pretty nice now. Im tempted to taste test, is there anything wrong with that? I cleaned the container, butane and sulfur derivatives should have all been evaporated (right?), and coffee is edible.
Im going to try with cinnamon now, as the amount of oil extracted is too small to try to extract caffeine from it, (2-3 drops, its a pretty small tank, and maybe I didnt give it enough time) and I didnt like that burnt smell it had. Im also tempted to make more, and try to make a cup of coffee from it to see how bad it tasted, but same deal than with the taste test.
After cinnamon I think im going to try hot peppers for capsaicin.

ficolas - 9-6-2017 at 04:40

Second attempt with cinnamon was also pretty bad. It seems That the solubility of the oils un butane isnt good.
After reading an article about caffeine extracción using butane and a THC extracción article, it seems That the method used for butane extractions is not adding a bunch of buttane , and then recovering the oil from it, passing butane through the coffee/whatever several times. Makes sense, as a soxlet extracción would be used with líquid solvents.
I would have to change my vessel to work better with this, as currently the extraction productos are left behind inside the vessel (gasseous butane comes out, not liquid) I just have to cut a small pipe inside the thing tho.