This article was originally published on Cannabis & Tech Today and appears here with permission.
The multi-billion dollar CBD/THC industry continues its rapid growth and products are multiplying. Now, the ability to increase production on an industrial scale while maintaining quality depends on using the most effective processes to extract cannabinoids such as cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) from hemp and marijuana.
The conventional ethanol extraction process, however, imposes considerable limitations on the production rate. For optimal efficiency, the ethanol must be rapidly cooled between -40°C and -80°C for the best extraction quality. Traditional refrigeration techniques cannot quickly achieve or maintain these subzero temperatures. The result is additional processing steps and a lower quality oil extract.
“Traditional freezing methods used in our industry only reduce ethanol to about -40°C at best, and at higher volumes when hot plant material is added, the temperature rises by 25 to 30 degrees. A those temperatures, too much wax is extracted, and not the full spectrum of cannabinoids,” says Dave Schenk, former president of Speedy Grow Inc., a Colorado-based nutraceutical manufacturer that offers a wide variety of natural stock formulations quality with high quality. – Quality CBD oil.
Fortunately, liquid nitrogen technology, established in pharmaceutical and medical applications, is now being used to design coolers specifically for CBD and THC extraction. The technology enables very fast, accurate cryogenic temperatures, along with accelerated processing and better product quality.
“To produce fully purified high-value CBD and THC oil, the ability to use liquid nitrogen coolers to quickly bring ethanol to -80°C is a game changer for our industry,” says Schenk. “We cut extraction and distillation time in half by eliminating unnecessary reprocessing, while producing a significantly better product,” says Schenk.
Schenk, who has decades of experience manufacturing supplements, discovered the technology while looking for a more efficient way to extract CBD from the hemp that Speedy Grow harvests. Common industry techniques at the time included freezing ethanol drums in freezers or soaking jars in dry ice for 12-24 hours. Sometimes the hemp was pre-cooled in small coolers so that the temperature of the ethanol does not rise. However, these techniques were not suitable for running between 1,500 and 2,500 lbs. of hemp that Speedy Grow wanted to process daily.
“The walk-in freezers were not capable of reducing the ethanol to the required temperatures and when making CBD in higher volumes, it is not practical to cool the hemp biomass in a bunch of small chest freezers,” says Schenk.
So Schenk approached Reflect Scientific, Inc. RSCF, an Orem, Utah-based OEM that develops and commercializes innovative and proprietary cryogenic refrigeration technologies for the medical, biotech, pharmaceutical and cannabis markets. The company holds more than 30 patents related to the use of liquid nitrogen with refrigerators, freezers and low-temperature refrigerated systems.
With Schenk’s input, the company manufactured custom Cryometrix coolers for the needs of the CBD and THC industry that circulate liquid nitrogen inside the cooling chamber, allowing for rapid cooling of the ethanol. Liquid nitrogen is an inert cryogenic fluid with a temperature of -196 °C. The coolers circulate liquid nitrogen inside the chamber, allowing rapid cooling of the ethanol to -80°C within an hour.
For high volumes, the L-80 Max can cool 120 gallons of ethanol to -40°C in just 25 minutes and -80°C in less than an hour. Compared to conventional methods, the rapid cooling process dramatically reduces cycle time and speeds up production.
To further ensure product quality, the L-80 Max offers state-of-the-art data and temperature logging, which can be easily accessed via a touch screen or downloaded to a PC. The temperature can be adjusted from +20 °C to -80 °C with uniformity of ± 1 °C throughout.
“This is the only equipment that can quickly bring ethanol down to -80°C and keep it below the critical threshold of -40°C throughout the extraction process,” says Schenk, adding that when the ethanol temperature rises above -40 °C. , the excess wax is extracted from the vegetable matter together with the oil, which must be filtered during distillation.
“In many cases, multiple reprocessing steps are required. So you have to get more chilled ethanol and go through the whole process, hoping you can keep the wax out this time. Most CBD and THC oil manufacturers are resigned to reprocessing the product multiple times, but it’s much more efficient to avoid extracting any wax in the first place by keeping the ethanol below -40°C,” says Schenk.
According to Schenk, Cryometrix liquid nitrogen coolers have significantly reduced the time and labor required for extraction and distillation.
“I cut my extraction time in half with the Cryometrix cooler. I saved even more time in the distillation process. Overall, production is at least 70% more efficient with the system, which more than makes up for it any cost for equipment and liquid nitrogen,” says Schenk.
Liquid nitrogen cooling also helped improve product quality. Since there is a limit to how much ethanol can absorb, achieving optimal sub-zero temperatures keeps the wax from the plant material in a solid form and allows more cannabinoids to be extracted.
Achieving optimal sub-zero temperatures keeps the wax from the plant material in solid form and allows more cannabinoids to be extracted.
“The tests showed that we were extracting a broader spectrum of cannabinoids,” says Schenk. “CBD gets all the credit, but many other cannabinoids do the heavy lifting. There are over a hundred different cannabinoids, and you also want to extract CBDA, CBG, and others that have beneficial properties,” says Schenk.
To streamline implementation for manufacturers of CBD/THC products, Cryometrix offers a turnkey solution. This includes the insulated holding tank, cryogenic pumps to fill and drain the cooled ethanol, and all controls to automatically cool the liquid. The manufacturer only needs to provide liquid nitrogen and plug the system into a 110V outlet.
For those with lower draw volumes, the company also offers a more compact unit, the L-80 Lite, which can cool 30 gallons at the same temperature range even faster than the larger unit at the same uniformity The L-80 Lite is manually operated with a modular design that allows for easy upgrades in the field with more features and automation as production needs grow.
Until recently, industry production of CBD/THC was limited by the inability to sufficiently cool the ethanol to the low temperatures required for more efficient processing. Today, using proven liquid nitrogen technology, CBD manufacturers can dramatically improve not only their processing speed, but also product quality.
“Liquid nitrogen refrigeration technology is extremely unique and most of the CBD industry still has no idea it exists. Manufacturers that take advantage of it will gain an edge over the competition in the market,” concludes Schenk.
