Are you looking for an industrial CO2 extraction machine wholesale? Then you need to reach out to Cedarstone Industry because they have the best technology to help you with your extraction process. Their ethanol extraction machines are fantastic for creating a high-quality product for your customers. Despite the fact that they are working in the Houston area, they serve companies all over the world. They have supplied machines to brand name companies such as Coca-Cola, Heineken, Bluebell, and more. Whether your company is large or small, they would love to do business with you. They will provide machines for all companies that require them.

They not only provide the machines, but they provide service for the machine as well. With these complex machines, you won’t have to learn how to care for them. Instead, you will have a team that knows them inside and out because they are the ones that created it. There are many reasons to choose a co2 extraction machine wholesale to get your equipment, however, the best equipment to choose is ethanol extraction equipment. If you want to make sure to get a high-quality machine for your projects, then you should talk to Cedarstone Industry because they have just the thing. Ethanol extraction is the best method for extracting specific oils from raw materials.

When shopping for an oil extracting machine, it is important to know exactly what kind of extraction system you are looking for. Ethanol is one of the best solvents in the industry when it comes to extraction. Let’s look at both CO2 and ethanol.

Why CO2 Extraction Equipment?

 

There are other solvents that are used for extraction. However, many of them are dangerous and don’t provide as pure of a product. Also, when it comes to supercritical fluid extraction, these solvents have to be raised to a temperature above 88 degrees. The higher the temperature, the higher the chance of harming the raw materials. One common solvent other than CO2 is methylene chloride. OSHA considered this solvent to be a potential occupation carcinogen. Using this solvent and other risky solvents could become a liability to your company and your products.

CO2 is clean, safe, and reliable. It has been labeled by the FDA as a safe solvent for industrial extractions. This is because it is a naturally occurring compound. It can be found in the air, in plants, and even in us. This compound is fantastic for supercritical extractions because for a supercritical CO2 extraction requires temperatures below 88 degrees. That means there is less risk of damaging the natural compounds. This also allows you to extract the cannabinoids CBG, CBN, and CBC. For those with companies that have to do with health and wellness, this type of extraction would be beneficial.

What is CO2 Extraction?

The easiest explanation is it is a process that utilizes pressurized CO2 to pull the desired phytochemicals from raw plant material. This produces a finished product that has little to no impurities. The product is often an amber-colored oil that can be used for multiple things. For the cannabis industry, if you use a CO2 extractor, you can then use the oil to create shatter, budder, or infuse it into food and drinks.

CO2 is also a turnable solvent, which means that the user has ample control over the properties. Since the user can control the temperature and the pressure, this system is versatile in creating a  variety of products. Companies such as coffee companies, essential oil companies, vegetable oil companies, and cannabis oil suppliers all use this method of extraction.

What is Ethanol Extraction?

Ethanol, grain alcohol, or ethyl alcohol is a volatile and colorless flammable liquid. This solvent is effective, efficient and according to the FDA safe for human consumption. It is also considered a renewable resource since it is derived from corn. Industries use this solvent in the production of food preservatives and additives, as well as for wine and beer.

This solvent is safer than butane and more effective than supercritical CO2. This is because it has more lenient storage limits meaning fewer requirements on the facility using it. It also eliminates the requirement of dewaxing or winterization when the extraction is done properly. One of the biggest benefits, however, is the fact that it yields large extract volumes.

These advantages can save your facility time and effort when creating a high-quality product. In addition, CO2 isn’t the only solvent that can create full-spectrum cannabis products. Ethanol is able to do that as well. And will provide larger volumes.

This solvent is a class 3 solvent with low toxic risks. Also, because of its capacity to leave little to no residue behind it is quite a popular solvent to use.

Supercritical Extraction

Supercritical extraction of supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) is the fastest extraction process and also produces the most. This method is used in the cosmetology industry and the pharmacology industry. SFE will take the CO2 and turn it into a supercritical fluid that will bind with the plant matter and dissolve it, leaving the desired compounds behind.

There are many benefits when choosing this method of CO2 extraction. Some of the advantages are:

• no waste
• potential for recirculation of the solvent
• high selectivity process
• uses non-toxic solvents that create chemically pure products
• fractionation of the collected substance as the process develops
• makes sure that collected components haven’t degenerated
• possibility to regulate the solubility of individual components in an effective manner

For those who have been looking to extract vegetable oil, using CO2 will supply you with an extraction rate of 95%. Other mechanical and traditional extraction methods produce about 60-80%. CO2 also creates a product that is more consistent and more palatable than other solvents. However, when it comes to supercritical extraction, even with CO2, this process won’t do well with some terpenes.

Subcritical Extraction

This process is similar; however, it requires a lower temperature and pressure. It takes longer and produces less than supercritical extraction; however, it’s better for more fragile material. This process also creates a substance with a consistency of molasses while the supercritical extraction creates a substance with a consistency like a peanut butter.

Another bonus to this extraction process is that it provides full-spectrum cannabis products. This is because it holds onto the plant’s sensitive materials. You may be wondering what extraction process to use. However, that will depend on what you are trying to produce.

The Cost for The Machines

While extraction equipment can be quite expensive, they do produce high-quality products making them valuable. The equipment also requires training to be able to use and isn’t worth cutting corners on. When you choose ethanol extraction you are investing in one of the best production methods for your company. This is important to remember when shopping for industrial ethanol or CO2 extraction machines wholesale.

 

What is the best CBD extraction solvent?

 This is the million dollar question because there are many factors which can limit your solvent options. The short answer is ethanol, for reasons we discuss shortly but the justification for this answer is a compromise between three key factors: selectivity, cost, and safety. Safety also happens to be the X-factor by virtue of the exponential effect it can have on cost.

Solvent selectivity

 Molecules and solvents can be classified by their polarity: polar vs nonpolar (or somewhere in between). CBD is very nonpolar. Water is very polar. Adhering to the very old and very true adage, “like dissolves like”, we can correctly assume that water is  ineffective for CBD extraction. While you may have heard of water (or “bubble”) hash, this is actually a physical separation of the trichomes from the rest of the plant. The potency of this extract peaks at around 45% CBD and is unsuitable for crystallization whereas solvent extracts reach 90% CBD and can be further processed to reach 99% after crystallization. For this reason, we will omit water hash from the discussion of high-throughput hemp processing.

Clearly, nonpolar solvents are chemically ideal for CBD extraction so does that mean ethanol is a nonpolar solvent? No. Ethanol is considered “somewhere in between” on the scale of nonpolar vs polar. Thus, it has the disadvantage of extracting polar molecules such as pigments, sugars, and- you guessed it- water. If ethanol is so much less selective than a common industrial nonpolar solvent such as butane or hexane, why would we use it? You guessed it- cost and safety.

Before we weigh the pros and cons of solvent safety, another common nonpolar extraction solvent deserves honorable mention- carbon dioxide.

When carbon dioxide is under enough pressure and temperature, it transitions to a fourth state of matter- a supercritical fluid. Extraction using carbon dioxide is called SFE (supercritical fluid extraction). In SFE, carbon dioxide is purchased very inexpensively in its liquid  state  and  the  pump  on  the CO2 machine   brings   it   up   to supercritical pressure while heaters bring it up to supercritical temperature. The pump must be very robust to achieve these pressures as well as the vessels and tubing in order to withstand these conditions safely. The end result is a SFE machine that is cost prohibitive for most start-ups. A “high capacity” SFE machine starts at $500,000 and can only extract approximately 25 pounds per hour whereas a similar throughput ethanol extraction unit costs about 10X less. That being said, carbon dioxide is the safest of the relevant extraction solvents being used in the industry today. But, you may ask, isn’t safety the X-factor? The answer is yes, but SFE has a major caveat: carbon dioxide also extracts lipids (AKA waxes and fats). Removal of lipids requires the painstaking and costly step of precipitation or “winterization”. Not only is this process inefficient but it negates the    safety    advantage    of    CO2  by requiring  the  use  of ethanol. Is ethanol unsafe? No, it is again “somewhere in between”. Ethanol is more dangerous than carbon dioxide (after all, carbon dioxide is a fire extinguisher) but less dangerous than hydrocarbon solvents (i.e., hexane or butane).

Safety

 For the sake of argument, let’s pretend that your hemp processing start-up company has the technical and engineering expertise to build a safe, reliable extraction facility with the equipment, infrastructure, and safeguards necessary to prevent a catastrophic accident involving the volatile solvent hexane or the gaseous butane or propane. Is your Fire Marshal willing to send his or her men and women into an explosive situation just so you can beta-test your cannabis facility in your proof-of-concept business venture? If you are a first-mover in that Fire Marshal’s jurisdiction, the answer is probably no. If entrepreneurs have already tried this and the result was a fire or explosion, the answer is a resounding NO. Per the NFPA codes, closed-loop light hydrocarbon extraction using butane or propane requires C1D1 construction which is very stringent and very high cost.

Let’s take this hypothetical situation one step further and assume that your Fire Marshal does in fact allow hydrocarbon extraction. Let’s also assume you aren’t using butane or propane due to the limitation in throughput inherent in pressurized batch extraction. That leaves us with pentane, hexane, or heptane- all of which behave almost identically with the exception of boiling point (this detail is inconsequential in regards to extraction but has significant implications in the crystallization process, more on that later). With the multitude of ethanol extraction and evaporation equipment on the market today, one might be tempted to reappropriate said equipment for use with, say, hexane. While this in theory may seem perfectly reasonable, the devil is in the details. There are many fittings and seals in this equipment and some of them aren’t trivial (ie, a centrifugal seal or evaporation plate exchanger). The manufacturer designs and sells this equipment for use with ethanol and therefore the seals are designed to be chemically compatible with ethanol, not hydrocarbons. Case in point- use of 190 proof ethanol denatured with heptane will void the warranty of most centrifuge extractors because even 5% hydrocarbon by volume will destroy the seals.

By now, we have made a case for ethanol based on selectivity and safety but it is a scant case at that. If we reduce the solvent temperature to below zero degrees Celsius, however, selectivity and safety become significantly better.

Here’s why cryo-ethanol improves selectivity and safety:

Temperature affects the rate at which processes occur

 Cold ethanol does not have a higher affinity for CBD nor a lower affinity for pigments and lipids. Lower temperature slows down the rate at which molecules move from the solid material (hemp) into the liquid material (ethanol). This rate is called the mass transfer coefficient. CBD, pigments, and lipids all have their respective mass transfer coefficients at a given temperature. The great thing about CBD is that its mass transfer coefficient is still quite high at very low temperatures. This is not the case for lipids and pigments such as chlorophyll. So by manipulating the temperature and halting the extraction until just after the bulk of the CBD has entered the solvent, we can improve de facto selectivity.

Just as low temperature slows down the rate of mass transfer, low temperature slows the rate of evaporation. As you probably know, it is not the liquid itself that is flammable but rather the vapor and its access to oxygen in the atmosphere for combustion. Thus, cryo-ethanol is much less flammable and likewise much less explosive than at room temperature. In fact, at -40 C there are so few ethanol molecules evaporating from the liquid surface, if a match were struck just above the surface (not recommended), it would not ignite. Since there is no reason to have ethanol in open use, a closed-loop system allows for safe and efficient transfer of solvent in the extraction and evaporation room. The NFPA code for closed-loop ethanol extraction calls for C1D2 (as opposed to C1D1 for butane) which significantly brings down costs and complexity.

Finally, ethanol is safer not just in terms of fire hazard but also in terms of consumer safety. Ethanol is  classified by the FDA as a Class 3 solvent with low toxicity. It can be present at concentrations up to 5000ppm and still be considered safe for consumption. Moreover, ethanol can be certified as food grade, Kosher, and Halal.

Cost

 Ethanol may be one of the more expensive solvents to choose from but its high cost can be managed in some ways and mitigated in other ways. The largest savings can be accomplished through ethanol recovery in the evaporation process. This is essentially ethanol distillation and has become standard procedure in the cannabis industry. A major disadvantage of ethanol distillation is the formation of an ethanol-water azeotrope which prevents the recovery of pure 200 proof ethanol. Regardless of the source of the water- in the plant, in the air, or condensation in cold vessels- the azeotrope is extremely difficult to break, resulting in recovered ethanol less than 185 proof. As more water comprises the ethanol, the solvation strength for CBD decreases. This is another often overlooked detail which can have a drastic effect on the cost of consumables. There are solutions for reproofing ethanol, such as molecular sieves and reproofing stills. The best solution, however, may be the choice of evaporation equipment which could avoid the problem altogether (see Evaporation Equipment section).

The next best way to maximize your ethanol savings is by using the same volume of ethanol multiple times for extraction. The reason behind this is simple- at a typical 1:1

hemp(lb):ethanol(gal) extraction ratio, the solvation capacity of ethanol far exceeds what will be extracted in the first batch of biomass. The number of batches which can be extracted by the same volume of ethanol depends on the CBD potency of the biomass, of course, but typically 7% biomass can be extracted at least three times before the ethanol nears saturation and solvation strength diminishes. Note: extraction of pigments and waxes also diminish solvation strength so cryo temperatures must be maintained in order to reuse the ethanol several times.

Another way to cut ethanol costs are through purchasing 190 proof denatured ethanol. Denatured ethanol does not incur the federal excise tax so the cost is significantly cheaper than 200 proof. It is important, however, to use ethanol denatured by n-heptane which is a food grade denaturant but be aware that the EPDM seals most likely in your extraction and evaporation equipment are not compatible with heptane. Another option is to purchase non-denatured 190 proof ethanol (w/ 5% water) but the small savings compared to 200 proof does not justify the dilution.

The final cost factor that makes ethanol extraction the best choice is the price of equipment. Being non-volatile, ethanol extraction equipment is designed to operate at atmospheric pressure, allowing for much more affordable materials, closures, valves, and safety measures. Furthermore, the highly competitive market of  ethanol equipment drives the prices down.

The Best CO2 extraction machine wholesale is Ethanol Extraction

To learn more about Cedarstone Industry’s wholesale, give them a call at (281) 397-3700. You can also check out their about us to learn about their company, or you can browse their products and services. Choose Cedarstone Industry to find fantastic ethanol extraction equipment and wholesale industrial CO2 extraction machines.