Commercial Whole Plant Extraction Methods

Pondering the idea of setting up an operation focused solely on whole plant extractions on a commercial level to the tune of a few hundred lbs. per month.

End product would be crude and distillate for the wholesale market and possibly wax for the retail market.

Question would be what method of extracting benefits whole plant the best? I'm leaning towards an ethanol extraction setup but aside from that Colorado Extraction Systems firm ... I haven't found any other equipment manufacturers.

If anyone is currently working in a commercial operation utilizing ethanol and care share some experiences good or bad that would be awesome.

If you mean simple stripping fans....hang dry and pack and run...

seems to be the trend here....labor cost savings for sure....

blastfrompast said:

If you mean simple stripping fans....hang dry and pack and run...

seems to be the trend here....labor cost savings for sure....

Click to expand...

More along the lines of fresh frozen .............

blastfrompast said:

If you mean simple stripping fans....hang dry and pack and run...

seems to be the trend here....labor cost savings for sure....

Click to expand...

Do you de-fan by hand?

I have found alcohols to be a poor solvent for THC. It needs to be hot and it takes time. It also pulls chlorophyll out of the leaf along with the THC.
Fan leaves were extracted with Hexane and found to have .3 percent THC along with 5 percent nonpolar resins and waxes. Ewww.

I recently purchased my forth barrel of Hexane, a barrel lasts an average of three years with the recovery system.

Hexane has a one minute agitated extraction time for dried plant matter. Hexane is hydrophobic, same as THC, and wet plants will not extract well at all.

But the short extraction time coupled with the easy recovery of solvent with ice water condensers make Hexane the solvent of choice for all solvent extracted vegetable oils in the grocery store.
I use it for the same reasons.

"Laboratory use
Pentanes are relatively inexpensive and are the most volatile liquid alkanes at room temperature, so they are often used in the laboratory as solvents that can be conveniently and rapidly evaporated. However, because of their nonpolarity and lack of functionality, they dissolve only non-polar and alkyl-rich compounds. Pentanes are miscible with most common nonpolar solvents such as chlorocarbons, aromatics, and ethers.

They are often used in liquid chromatography."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentane


Heptane: Boiling point 98.38 °C; 209.08 °F; 371.53 K

Hexane: Boiling point 68.5 to 69.1 °C; 155.2 to 156.3 °F; 341.6 to 342.2 K

Pentane: Boiling point 35.9 to 36.3 °C; 96.5 to 97.3 °F; 309.0 to 309.4 K


From the FDA USP Residual Solvent <467> guidelines:

Class 2 residual solvents (should be limited in drug substances, excipients, and drug products because of the inherent toxicities of the residual solvents.)

Solvent PDE (mg/day) Concentration Limit (ppm)
Acetonitrile 4.1 410
Chlorobenzene 3.6 360
Chloroform 0.6 60
Cumene 0.7 70
Cyclohexane 38.8 3880
1,2-Dichloroethene 18.7 1870
1,2-Dimethoxyethane 1.0 100
N,N-Dimethylacetamide 10.9 1090
N,N-Dimethylformamide 8.8 880
1,4-Dioxane 3.8 380
2-Ethoxyethanol 1.6 160
Ethylene glycol 6.2 620
Formamide 2.2 220
Hexane 2.9 290
Methanol 30.0 3000
2-Methoxyethanol 0.5 50
Methylbutylketone 0.5 50
Methylcyclohexane 11.8 1180
Methylene chloride 6.0 600
N-Methylpyrrolidone 5.3 530
Nitromethane 0.5 50
Pyridine 2.0 200
Sulfolane 1.6 160
Tetrahydrofuran 7.2 720
Tetralin 1.0 100
Toluene 8.9 890
Trichloroethylene 0.8 80
Xylene 21.7 2170


Class 3 Residual Solvents (limited by GMP or other quality-based requirements in drug substances, excipients, and drug products)

Acetic acid
Acetone
Anisole
1-Butanol
2-Butanol
Butyl acetate
tert-Butylmethyl ether
Dimethyl sulfoxide
Ethanol
Ethyl acetate
Ethyl ether
Ethyl formate
Formic acid
Heptane
Isobutyl acetate
Isopropyl acetate
Methyl acetate
3-Methyl-1-butanol
Methylethylketone
Methylisobutylketone
2-Methyl-1-propanol
Pentane
1-Pentanol
1-Propanol
2-Propanol
Propyl acetate

https://hmc.usp.org/sites/default/files/documents/HMC/GCs-Pdfs/c467.pdf


Examine the Class 2 list, several have way higher allowable exposure rates than hexane, i.e. cyclohexane, methanol, and xylene.

I've decided to add methanol and xylene to my cache for testing.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=7933632&postcount=162

Check out the rest of that thread for how to purchase any of the solvents listed.


Pentane, heptane, ethyl acetate, and methyl acetate (Bp 56.9C/134.4F) would be a few of my suggestions other than ethanol.


How do you intend on recovering the solvent? Here's an alternative to glassware,

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=7935055&postcount=6

Phaeton said:

I have found alcohols to be a poor solvent for THC. It needs to be hot and it takes time. It also pulls chlorophyll out of the leaf along with the THC.
Fan leaves were extracted with Hexane and found to have .3 percent THC along with 5 percent nonpolar resins and waxes. Ewww.

I recently purchased my forth barrel of Hexane, a barrel lasts an average of three years with the recovery system.

Hexane has a one minute agitated extraction time for dried plant matter. Hexane is hydrophobic, same as THC, and wet plants will not extract well at all.

But the short extraction time coupled with the easy recovery of solvent with ice water condensers make Hexane the solvent of choice for all solvent extracted vegetable oils in the grocery store.
I use it for the same reasons.

Click to expand...

Thanks ... I'll look into Hexane. FYI ...... my intent was to not to extract the fans but to freeze both plant and alcohol to temps of -30c or so. Yields of course are the name of the game and anything short of 25% with whole plant ain't gonna cut it.

Just my 50cents.... is possible to put out clorophyl with some light? I read somewhere some kind of light decrase clorophyl (but i dont know what happening with thc).... maybe im totally wrong?

Digital Man said:

Thanks ... I'll look into Hexane. FYI ...... my intent was to not to extract the fans and to freeze both plant and alcohol to temps of -30c or so. Yields of course are the name of the game and anything short of 25% with whole plant ain't gonna cut it.

Click to expand...

Here's Gray Wolf's blog on hexane extractions,

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=7935055&postcount=6


Pentane is the closest hydrocarbon to butane,

https://skunkpharmresearch.com/simple-alkanes-alcohols-and-ethers/


Pick up some cheap tech grade hexane off of eBay, and do a few tests, if you like what you're seeing, pentane produces the same results, has less odor, boils off at a much lower temperature, and is less toxic.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hexane-1-Ga...hash=item1c2ffd27a2:m:mfMNwoMIzsm3HCpRzgVAABA

Pentane,

http://www.rightpricechemicals.com/buy-n-pentane-99-online.html

Good stuff Sky ........... appreciate it. As far as recovery goes .............. interested in whatever can get the job done at the lowest temp.

Just an FYI on the state of Calif. recently released mandatory testing standards for solvent levels beginning in 2018 in PPM:

Solvent Products for inhalation all other infused products

Ethanol: 1,000, 5,000
Heptane: 500, 5,000
Hexane: 50, 290
Pentane: 750, 5,000
Propane: 2,100, 5,000
Butane: 800, 5,000
Iso: 500, 5,000
Ethyl acetate: 400, 5,000
Methanol: 250, 3,000

Digital Man said:

Just an FYI on the state of Calif. recently released mandatory testing standards for solvent levels beginning in 2018 in PPM:

Solvent Products for inhalation all other infused products

Ethanol: 1,000, 5,000
Heptane: 500, 5,000
Hexane: 50, 290
Pentane: 750, 5,000
Propane: 2,100, 5,000
Butane: 800, 5,000
Iso: 500, 5,000
Ethyl acetate: 400, 5,000
Methanol: 250, 3,000

Click to expand...

Proposed Residual Solvents and Processing Chemicals


Chemical Name/CAS No./Action Level for Medical Cannabis Goods Meant for Inhalation (ppm)/Action Level for All Other Medical Cannabis–Infused Goods (ppm)

1,2-Dichloroethane 107-06-2 2/5

Acetone 67-64-1 750/5,000

Acetonitrile 75-05-8 60/410

Benzene 71-43-2 1/2

Butane 106-97-8 800/5,000

Chloroform 67-66-3 2/60

Ethanol 64-17-5 1,000/5,000

Ethyl acetate 141-78-6 400/5,000

Ethyl ether 60-29-7 500/5,000

Ethylene oxide 75-21-8 5/50

Heptane 142-82-5 500/5,000

Hexane 110-54-3 50/290

Isopropyl alcohol 67-63-0 500/5,000

Methanol 67-56-1 250/3,000

Methylene chloride 75-09-2 125/600

Naphtha 8030-30-6 400/400

Pentane 109-66-0 750/5,000

Petroleum ether 8032-32-4 400/400

Propane 74-98-6 2100/5,000

Trichloroethylene 79-01-6 25/80

Toluene 108-88-3 150/890

Total xylenes (ortho-, meta-, para-) 1330-20-7 150/2,170



(pages 42-44)
BUREAU OF MARIJUANA CONTROL CALIFORNIA CODE OF REGULATIONS TITLE 16, DIVISION 42 MEDICAL CANNABIS TESTING LABORATORIES INITIAL STATEMENT OF REASONS
HEARING DATES: June 1, 2017; June 8, 2017; June 13, 2017; June 20, 2017 SUBJECT MATTER OF PROPOSED REGULATIONS: Medical Cannabis Testing
Laboratories

http://bmcr.ca.gov/laws_regs/mcrsa_lab_isor.pdf


The butane inhalation figure is a little low, 2,500 ppm for both butane and propane would be more reasonable.

Mikell said:

Do you de-fan by hand?

Click to expand...

yeah, about 5-10 min a plant, 5 plant a light.

use double handed limb cutting shear.... hang strip....wait and then either strip and vac and freeze for later or just run.

Stripping = cutting off branches and running thumb down stalk into collection bin....

beats 6 hours of hand trimming per light before cleanup... about 1/3 the time. (dont really save any cleanup time)

Only downside is if you run an unproven strain.....and it doesn't make nice oil....

then you are dry trimming it.. ...which takes longer imho

Oh how I envy you.

Thank you for the insight.