It’s one of the most popular areas of the cannabis industry. It’s the art of using CO2 to extract and concentrate cannabis. From vapor pens, to cooking oil, to mind bending dabs, CO2 extraction is a hot ticket these days.
Considered to be healthier, cleaner and more aromatic than using Butane as an extractor, CO2 is a naturally occurring chemical in the body. The only real danger with CO2 these days is the amount of pressure that it takes to extract can be potentially explosive. But modern extraction machines are quite dependable.
Closed Loop System
CO2 cannabis extraction uses what they call a “closed loop” system. That means that no outside oxygen or contaminants can get entered into the system. From the time you load in the plant product, to the time the cannabis concentrate comes out, it stays completely sealed.
A metal cylinder is loaded with cannabis product that is dried as much as it can be. The drier the product, the higher the yield. It is then pumped with CO2 until it reaches a desired pressure and temperature. At this point, the CO2 wants to be both a gas and a liquid, but is really just a combination of both. That adds to it’s ability to extract because the liquid helps breakdown more components, while the gas can get into tighter spaces.
This is a “cold extraction” process. When THC gets heated too high, it changes in molecular structure and the effects go from stony to sleepy. The cooler temperatures extract the best of the best in the process.
The mixture of CO2 and cannabis extract is then pumped into another chamber with a lower pressure that causes the cannabis concentrate to accumulate at the bottom, where the simple flip of a lever causes the product to come out the valve.
At this point the concentrate is a blend of solid and liquid and it comes out looking like the bad end of a baby’s diaper. So at this stage, alcohol is entered into the process to bind the alcohol and cannabinoids and further separate the concentrate from the solid.
Once that process is complete, the mixture is put into a heating process that evaporates the alcohol out and leaves the beautiful oil in its place. It is at this point that many manufacturers add terpenes to the mixture to create the “strain” of oil that they will then use for vape pens, dabs and oils.
There are two sources I recommend for further instruction. One is a video from Golden Xtrx and it is here. The other is an article from Honest Marijuana here: https://honestmarijuana.com/co2-extraction/?age-verified=45edaa6aa7
When I was at Cannacon in Seattle recently, I had a chance to talk to the folks at ExtrakLAB about what they are calling the most efficient extractors in the business. Check out the video and transcript below.
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Power To The Flower.
Scojo The Herb Advisor
| Scojo: | Greetings and salutations everybody. Scojo The Herb Advisor here at Seattle CANNACON 2018. CANNACON, it’s not COMICON. If it was, storm troopers would be high, mark my words. I’m here with Connor, who is in one of the businesses I’m a gigantic fan of. If you don’t know about CO2 extraction, well good luck. I got Connor here right now, lets hear a little bit more about it.
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| Connor Corigan: | My pleasure, thank you for the interview. My name is Connor, I’m the sales manager for extraktLAB. We are the manufacturers of efficient, the most efficient CO2 extraction equipment on the marker. For example, behind me is a 40 liter extractor that is easily producing over 800 grams of crude oil every single hour. So again, no other more efficient systems than ours. Yeah, that’s who we are.
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| Scojo: | So your typical customer is …
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| Connor Corigan: | Our typical customers are the producers of concentrate or extract products, so either edibles, vape oils, tinctures, capsules, isolate, etc.
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| Scojo: | Do you have a website, and are you on social media?
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| Connor Corigan: | We do. Yeah, you can reach us at extraktLAB.com, that’s E-X-T-R-A-K-T-L-A-B.com. You can reach us on Instagram @extraktLAB. LinkedIn, Facebook, all the social media @extraktLAB.
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| Scojo: | That’s just a gigantic kind of pain in the ass, doing the social media thing, like getting it all together.
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| Connor Corigan: | Yeah, but worth it. A lot of people here at the show say, “Hey, I saw you on social media. I would love to talk with you, meet you, etc.” So it’s very nice.
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| Scojo: | You guys can’t really see this, but they got some great monitors here with just this gorgeous CO2 stuff going on, so I’m kind of feeling a little salivation going on at this point. So the final question, we talked about this earlier. Now Jeff Sessions, we all know who he is. Do we have any message for him?
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| Connor Corigan: | We don’t. Keep doing your thing as you see fit. We are, like I said, made in the USA manufacturer, a start up company that is leading in the technology space within cannabis. So if we want those types of businesses to be encouraged to start up and succeed here in America, keep us in mind. That’s what I’ll say.
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| Scojo: | Some good love going on right here, lots of love. Well that is Connor. I am Scojo the Herb Advisor. Check out my stuff at theherbadvisor.com. From CANNACON where the storm troopers are high, power to the flower everybody.
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The Herb Advisor 