Wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction, id like to create a cbd extract for vape carts. I source premium sun grown cbd flower with a range off terp profiles and I think would make a great cbd vape pen. Issue is I dont fancy doing BHO systems for safety aspect even know I must admit the vapes we had done this way was very good. we wouldn’t have anyone to process it in volume for us so we need something we can safely do ourselves.
Is ethanol extraction or co2 a option anyone have any recommendations for us please looking to buy as all in one system if thats a option.
If you’re worried about safety and you have good quality weed, try ice water extraction. Note that this is not a great option if you’ve got a huge volume. But, lower startup costs (someone correct me if I’m wrong)
you’ll need
ice water extraction set up
filter bags with appropriate micron range
freezer dryer
rosin press
Have you made CBD carts before? They’re prone to crystallization and become unusable pretty quickly if not done with extreme care.
Ethanol is a good option for volume but say goodbye to your terpenes
CO2 is a good option for preserving terpenes but post processing becomes a nightmare
I’d have to disagree with poly here. Water hash is the hardest to scale, plus you don’t know which cultivars will wash and which simply wont.
Ethanol, is simpler, cheaper, safer, and FARRRR easier to scale for commercial production. You could get a used centrifuge, chiller, rotovap and short path for under 25k.
You’d be hard pressed to get just a butane extractor that can handle volume at that cost. Not to mention the c1d1 booth you’ll need if you want to do hydrocarbons safely.
Are you sourcing terps or trying to do those in house as well?
I meant I disagree with you on BHO being the move. But it totally depends on scale.
He said he “has a range off terp profiles” never mentions preserving them that’s why I asked.
If he wants native profiles one can scale the terpene extraction via simple steam distilling, adding vacuum to preserve more terps. Biomass can still be extracted for cannabinoids afterword.
I would recommend 30C pentane as extraction solvent BUT NOT on a lanphan fuge but on a kingcrate or better Once extracted evaporate 80% of pentane and ad acetone to winterize
Winterization filtration under pressure NOT vacuum then take solution to evaporation of solvent at max bath temp 32 C (azeotrope1:3 pentane acetone ) with or without vacuum depending on coldtrap
Once evaporated I would place under hard diffusion vacuum with heavy coldtraping and slowly ramp temp to 90C catch all the terpenes once stripped of terps
Decarboxilate and crash cbd
And I never tried to do the terpene strip prior to the winterization step but might be an option
Caveats
Terpene distillation under diffusion only works with overhead stirring with a magnetic coupler
I use a waterbath and sousevide instead of stirring mantel since I dislike pid controled heating for this task
Coldtrap s dry ice and ln2 at least
F you can get a hold of a all metal circulation pump with this design
Again, all of these possible solutions are completely dependent on his scale.
I’ve had excellent steam terpenes before. Not comparable to BHO in quality, but not comparable in terms of price to produce either.
”Steam sucks !”
To each their own. Bang for buck Steam CDT terps still shit on 99% of botanicals. I’ve had some phenomenal steam terps, as you know, with any terp extraction, starting materials and parameters matter immensely regarding end quality.
The art of distilling terps is diffusion and slow ramping of temps ( about 10hours on a 20L rig) to go from ambient ( inside the flask freezing) to 90C
Remember under vacuum vapor pressure is leading the distillation NOT boiling point of compounds
I would probably agree that bho cbda hte sounds the most premium/best quality and probably offers the best shot at yielding a compliant product. Probably not aligned with current market/unknown future.
I think cold cure cbd could be awesome but idk if there are identified strains that wash.(I’d be interested if there are, when I’ve asked in the past i was told no)
I do think the process of creating a rosin cart would be non-compliant(in most cases) though.
On the topic of ethanol extracts: what does the material look like potency wise? Most compliant flower or biomass will not yield compliant extracts through distillation alone, unless it was grown with intention(maybe?).
I do think it would be cool to specifically grow a compliant hemp blend feedstock that could then be naturally processed/distilled, not requiring any sort of chromatography or remediation to maintain compliance and would also need to extract terps separately to boost quality.
Id like to think it’s doable, but again probably does not make sense in the market.
Alternatively, maybe consider sourcing compliant material of your choice and extracting your own terps.
