Why Cannabis Oil Extraction Equipment is So Important?

Cannabis is a kind of a double edged sword! Lest this sound dramatic, here is the explanation. One of cannabis’ ingredient is benevolent and medicinal. The problem is with its other ingredient, which is psychoactive and causes intoxication. It is this other ingredient that gives the entire cannabis plant a bad name. What is more, both are present inside the same sample of cannabis plant.

Based on the concentration of the dreaded psychoactive ingredient called THC or tetrahydrocannabinol, cannabis can be of two types:

• Hemp contains under 0.3% THC by dry mass, and has tremendous industrial and medicinal applications. The cannabis variety being legalized in many countries of the world is hemp.
• Marijuana has 0.3% or more THC, and is an intoxicant. It is treated as a narcotic and is banned in most of the world.

As a result, Cannabis oil extraction equipment has to be primed for the delicate operation – to extract minimal or zero THC while maximizing the extraction of the benevolent ingredient called CBD or cannabidiol. CBD counters anxiety, irritable bowel disease, depression, pain, seizures, migraines, inflammation, mental disorders and the like.

Cannabis Business Consulting

Navigating the thin line between hemp and marijuana is tougher than a tightrope walk. This is where consultants in the cannabis space come into play. They will help you tide through the confusing waters – legal, technical, and business. Among their important services is guiding you to select the best cannabis extraction process and equipment.

Speaking of processes, here are some used for cannabis extraction:

• Cryogenic Ethanol Extraction employs ethanol at temperatures around -40⁰C to draw out cannabis oil. Literally and figuratively, this process is “cool,” in that low temperatures avoid drawing out many unwanted elements from the raw material. So much so, one of the post extraction processes, namely winterization, is not required after Cryogenic Ethanol extraction for cannabis oil!

• Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SCFE)uses a fluid in its supercritical state. Such a fluid is called a supercritical fluid (SCF) whose pressure can be controlled for accurate extraction of CBD from the cannabis raw material. For reasons of operational ease, availability, and efficiency, carbon dioxide (CO₂) is the preferred SCF of most cannabis oil extraction equipment manufacturers and operators alike.

• Solvent Extractionutilizes hexane or butane as a solvent to dissolve the necessary product (CBD in most cases) from the raw material. Thereafter, the solvent and the dissolved product are separated. The problem is, the solvent and product cannot be totally separated. Which is why solvent residues persist in the product and negatively affect the purity of the latter.

• Hydrodistillationuses heated water or steam to dissolve CBD from the finely ground cannabis raw material. Distillation is the next step that segregates the two. The fact that heat is used can may distortCBD’s chemical structure. Again, this affects the purity of CBD.
  

Turnkey Solutions for Cannabis Extraction

Ask any of the Cannabis business consulting guys. They’ll tell you, only two of the above mentioned cannabis extraction processes can be truly part of a turnkey solution. These are SCFE and Cryo Ethanol Extraction.

The reasons lie in the very features of these processes:

• Precision is the first and most important USP of these procedures. Close pressure control is at the heart of accuracy SCFE. And with operational temperatures hitting 40 degree Celsius below zero in cryo extraction, a host of unwanted products – waxes, lipids, and fats are not extracted in the first place.

• Yieldis related to accuracy – the better the accuracy of the process, the more is the yield. With more of the required product (CBD) in the final extract, the quality of the final products made such extracts is significantly superior.

• Streamlined Procedures minimize the number of post extraction processes required to refine the extracted cannabis oil. This also reduces the time needed to have a finished product. The accuracy of these processes means that they do not draw out unwanted products from the cannabis raw material. Cryogenic Ethanol extraction takes streamlining to a completely different level bytotally eliminating one of the post extraction procedures.

• Better ROI results from the improved yield and higher quality products extracted in the least possible time.
  

Parting Comments

All said and done, turnkey solutions for cannabis extraction do not get any better than those employing cryo extraction and SCFE. You should definitely consider these types of cannabis extraction equipment before you select yours.