Okay this sounds promising. What does the end product look like? Have you tested the THC content? Also I googled steam codistillation, no such thing, just steam distillation. Are you sure what you extracted wasn't just terps?
Actually it looks like you probably turned that heating mantle up high enough to boil the THC and just piped steam over the top of it. Does keep the tubes clean though and helps move the THC out.
Steam Distillation and steam co-distillation are the same thing as applied here, however I prefer the language of co-distillation to more clearly communicate that this not simply a process to distill water. Google a bit more and you will see the term applied thusly, however this small point is mostly irrelevent. Also, Google "Wikipedia Cannabis Flower Essential Oil" and you can navigate to the wikipedia site that briefly talks about extracting the oil with steam.
THC is a volitile aromatic. Terps are volitile organic compounds (VOCs). Anything volitile will pass over in a steam codistillation product, and in the case of extracts the multiple volitile components generally pass over in the order they would in short path distillation. Pinene first, then thc, then the higher boiling terps like limonene.Each is collected seperately and anything without color is tossed. This is not a new idea at all.
As a kid in Madras Oregom I changed irrigation pipes in vast stretches of mint fields. The only value in mint is oil. At harvest gigantic metal steam codistillation units would be hauled into the fields and this is PRECISELY how the mint farmers extracted the volitile mint oil. I have done this and versions of this multiple times and as a kid I,saw how it worked on a massive scale.
What you see in the tube is an emulsion of water and oil and some terps. This is exactly what you see in short path distillation (I have a hobby rig for that too). The differences are many between short path but some are consistent with any distillation product. In other words, every distillation requires multiple runs for greater purity.
The huge advantage we have when codistilling thc oil is the viscosity. The terpenes that do come over with the oil tend to run out of the condenser while the oil tends to hold up. I know precisely what thc oil is in a pure state as I,produce it also for myself using a cryogenic sublimator (which acts as the ultimate short path distillation unit).
Your question about whether all you see are terps is reasonable however, I also engage in chromatography, both column chromatography (hyper slow and small samples) and more recently I employ Dry Column Vacuum Chromatography using white aluminum oxide as the stationary phase. I can tell you that terpenes are clear unless mixed with water, like pinene will mix, then they present themselves as a white milky sunstance when so mixed. THC oil is yellow. Chromotography for thc relies on colors mostly to identify components. Terpenes are clear and extremely odiferous and will not become solid until nearly as cold as a dry ice/acetone bath. THC oil becomes solid in my freezer easily which is considerably warmer.
What you see in the poorly lighted video dripping out of the tube is nearly pure thc with water mixed through it (an emulsion). Boiling points of any voliitile component are irrelevent when two immiscible substances like thc and water are boiled in the same unit. The steam is moving through very fast (which is why the hot settings). The molecules of thc oil and every other aromatic will fill in the air space immediately above the puddle of oil. When the steam particule flys past and through the suspended aromatic molecules inevitably a collision occurs and the thc molecule hitches a ride on the steam particule until the steam condenses. Just like distilling mint oil.
Irregardless of temperature settings the temperature is limited to about 98C although a much more complete and faster process is to crank it up so he head temp reads 105-115C, however this is a judgement errror I wont make again. Patience and 98C works WONDERS.
The trick to the set up is to run very hot water in the Liebig condenser, otherwise ALL of the oil will hold up in the condenser. Remember, the rules for vapor pressure and the temps associated with it as related to distillation change completely when two or more immiscible liquids are boiled together. If you have ever worked in a restaurant that has a fry cooker, you will notice that the oil gets on EVERYTHING. yuck. This is because when you dump fries into the oil, the steam that is released in cooking carries little bits of oil out of the vat which is deposited anywhere the water condenses, like the floor and walls. The oil in the vat has a MUCH higher boiling point than the water in the fries but is carried out of the vat by the steam and the mess that is created with the oil is a result of steam codistillation of the oil out of the vat.
On my video I placed a link to an explanation. Here it is again at the bottom of this post.
I tried doing the process with exactly the same setup as this guys animation shows and it did work but it is hella hard on glassware and I have cracked two boiling flasks over multiple runs trying to perfect the idea as applied. The video I did simply added a tube to get the steam down into the puddle and also presented the water already as steam into the boiling flask which substantially increased throughput. The first fraction you get will be clear, and if like mine will smell up the house like a pine tree on steroids. It smells pretty nasty. There is actually a vapor that does not condense that is released at first and vented to air. I have no idea whatnis in this first bit of vapor but taking a whiff produced a strong gag response. I am glad I am not inhaling that first part anymore!
At any rate the credit is not mine for figuring out my set up because this sort of thing has been done for eons by men. My newest setup uses a three neck boiling flask with a 25ml addition funnel on top so I can feed the extract in at the same time as steam and so the process is continuous, however I have yet to video tape it.
Sorry for the long post, but I needed to explain. Once you sample thc oil that has substantially been purified I find it tough to think you would want oil any other way, and of the myriad ways I have purified the stuff by far steam codistillation is the least complex and most accessible way too do this without tremendous start up costs and technical epxerience.
Here is the link that pops up in my video that offers the explanation:
