A PUBLICATION Cannabis on Collision Course with Science extractionmagazine.com ISSUE 17 Jan/Feb 2021 Extending the Power of Dense Gas It All Comes Beyond Extraction Out During Spoiler Alert - Dense Distillation Gas is Underused and Misunderstood From Soil to Oil We Have the Technology but Why are We Using It? Crafting Cannabis Concentrates at Home Using Ethanol Extraction Hydrocarbon Extraction Fundamentals SUPERIOR POWER & PERFORMANCE Introducing Pollen Tech™! Born out of Greenlane Studio’s 15+ years of vaporization product expertise, Pollen Tech supplies the industry with high-quality and innovative vaporization solutions. Our proprietary ceramic core technology delivers < 1% failure rate, impressive vapor production, and full flavor. Pollen Tech excels in creating customizable designs using high-quality, ethically-sourced materials. POLLENTECH.CO LICENSED BUSINESSES CALL 213.784.6647 NOT FOR SALE TO MINORS SUPERIOR POWER & PERFORMANCE Introducing Pollen Tech™! Born out of Greenlane Studio’s 15+ years of vaporization product expertise, Pollen Tech supplies the industry with high-quality and innovative vaporization solutions. Our proprietary ceramic core technology delivers < 1% failure rate, impressive vapor production, and full flavor. Pollen Tech excels in creating customizable designs using high-quality, ethically-sourced materials. Contents From Gaseous Monster to Superhero 06 for Green Extraction and Purification Extending the Power of 10 Dense Gas Beyond Extraction Publisher MACE Media Group Hydrocarbon Extraction Fundamentals CEO 14 Celeste Miranda Editor-in-Chief From Soil to Oil Jason S. Lupoi, Ph.D. 16 Authors Jason S. Lupoi, Ph.D. It All Comes Out John MacKay, Ph.D. 22 During Distillation Joe Kookoothe AC Braddock Crafting Cannabis Concentrates at Steven Bennett, Ph.D. Home Using Ethanol Extraction Troy Ivan 24 Harry Resin Joseph Encinosa Molecular Formulated Live Resin Designer 30 Marko Nedeljkovic Advertising Bradford Burgess High precision temperature control • Working temperatures from -125 °C to +425 °C • Powerful thermodynamics • Highly accurate, intelligent temperature control • High process stability and reproducibility • Fast heating and cooling rates • High cooling powers from 0,7 to 130 kW • Large temperature range without fluid change • Incredibly compact Follow us on Instagram: huber_king_of_temp huberOG Inspired by temperature For more information visit : www.huber-usa.com/Unistat815 or call: 800.726.4877 6 EXTRACTION MAGAZINE From Gaseous Monster to Superhero for Green Extraction and Purification Repurposing carbon dioxide for wellness product manufacturing By Jason S. Lupoi, Ph.D. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle — an environmental mantra. As sterilization [11], and botanical extraction and purification, garbage piles on land and in seas, augmented by COVID-19 which is the matter at hand. [1], our Earth continues to cry “Uncle.” Relentless packaging, improperly disposed of electronics, and the over extraction The Ideal Gas Law (PV=nRT; P for pressure, V for volume, of natural resources like fossil fuels offer glimpses into the n for amount of material, R for the ideal gas constant, and Earth’s banshee wail. At one point in my life, I was involved T for temperature) states that pressure and temperature in research on how plants could help lessen the use of fossil are proportional, meaning that as one goes up or down, the fuels, the burning of which creates greenhouse gases like other does in tandem. A substance’s critical point regards the carbon dioxide (CO2). [2] CO2 provided a suitable demon temperature and pressure combo that causes the substance and studies have demonstrated its contribution to rising, to behave as a liquid and a gas. These parameters can global temperatures. [3] I know, I know. Some people don’t be jockeyed to tune one’s extraction strategy based upon believe or even recognize the data but that’s negligible for specific analytes within the feed. this discussion. The point is that many efforts have sought to prevent relentless CO2 levels from polluting our world. Supercritical CO2 (sCO2, with a critical point of 31.1°C, 72.8 atm) is often used for decaffeinating coffees and teas, where Due to its ostracization, CO2 comes very cheap. It can be it has been said to offer better selectivity for preferentially captured from industrial processes like burning fossil fuels removing caffeine while leaving essential flavor molecules for energy or transportation, cement production, or the forging of iron and steel. Or by giant machines that exemplify innovation meant to change the world. [4] Once harnessed, it can be repurposed for applications like creating low-carbon liquid fuels or as a building block in chemical syntheses. [5] Another option for repurposing CO2 is to manipulate its temperature and pressure such that it becomes a supercritical fluid where it can be used to extract soils and marine sediments for hydrocarbon contaminant extraction and quantitation [6,7], alcohols from water [8], or organic contaminants like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from plastic waste so the garbage can be recycled [9]. Repurposed CO2 can also be used as a substitute for more toxic chemicals used for dry cleaning [10], for medical device EXTRACTION MAGAZINE 7 behind. [12,13] sCO2 can also be used to remove fat from nuts and potato chips [14] and to extract antioxidants and omega fatty acids from algae [15,16] and crustacean by-products [17]. sCO2 and its subcritical complement have been frequently used to extract hops [18] and cannabis and essential oils contained within those and many other plants as diverse as patchouli [19], carrots [20], or medicinal mushrooms [21]. These extracts could be used on their own or in creating products like a tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)-rich vape cart, a rosemary essential oil for use in one’s cultivation due to the herb’s pesticidal properties from terpenes like eucalyptol, pinene, and camphor [22], or to create a terpene-infused beer like New Image Brewing did with their Pure Isolate India pale ale. (There’s even an sCO2 system on the can!) Some cannabis product manufacturers have turned to sCO2 instead of hydrocarbon solvents to create concentrates like shatter and wax that do not come with worries of residual solvents, as the CO2 is depressurized back to a gas for subsequent recycling. The ideal solvation of a substance occurs when the solubility parameter of the solute matches the solubility parameter of the solvent. Easy enough. While ethanol offers a solubility parameter close to many cannabinoids at ambient conditions, when the temperature is reduced, so is the solubility of undesirable constituents like waxes. [23] That’s a good thing and illustrates the foundation of winterization, but terpenes and cannabinoids are also less soluble as temperatures get colder. The overlap in solubility parameters between hydrocarbons and terpenes is substantial, but these solvents, as well as ethanol, require ethical disposal and remediation such that they are not taxing an already aching Earth. Dense CO2 provides suitable green alternatives. These principles apply to other plant ingredients, such as curcumin from turmeric, capsaicin from chiles, and beta-carotene from various other botanicals. [24] Coming full circle, another green solution to obtain augmented stockpiles of beneficent, food-related phytonutrients regards using sCO2 on agricultural waste products that might be destined for use as feedstock for renewable energy applications. When specific crops have been suggested for fuel applications, the dichotomy of fuel versus food has proven divisive into two factions of thought. We might as well extract the most from any cultivated crop, whether oranges, onions, cannabis, or eucalyptus trees. Molecules not required for bio-based fuels (which need cellulose) have purpose elsewhere. Hearing that farmers are 8 EXTRACTION MAGAZINE growing hemp for cannabidiol (CBD) alone doesn’t exemplify and acetonitrile, both of which are health hazards that require the fundamental of maximizing the “fruits” of our labors. So, remediation. This could be to measure the tocopherol and running an sCO2 extraction on the biomass first can allow us ferulic acid found in the rice bran extract discussed or to to pull out remaining nutrients for wellness applications before measure the cannabinoid profile of a given chemovar. sending the cellulosic raffinate on its final journey to fuel. Examples of this include antioxidants from olive, grape, citrus SFC also provides a powerful method for product purification, waste, tomato, onion skins, and spent brewers’ yeast. [24] whether application is intended for separation of enantiomers (mirror-image molecules) or for remediating THC from Jerry King, Ph.D., offers a glimpse into this paradigm federally legal hemp products. [25] switch from fuel against food to fuel and food using rice as an example. [24] Brown and white rice can undergo sCO2 To end on a cosmic note, sCO2 has been implicated as a treatment to prolong shelf-life; rice bran can be defatted, potential life-sustaining solvent on other planets in the creating a powdered rice bran product; and the rice bran universe. [26] The life supported in these environments may can also be extracted, the product of which can be rich with be weird but sCO2 can catalyze reactions that do not happen tocopherol and ferulic acid. Glycerol can also be refined from in water exemplified by the fact that enzymes are more rice bran extract which can then be used in the formation of stable in sCO2 because of their augmented inflexibility (they polymers. Further treatment with other supercritical fluids can’t unravel). These environments also aren’t necessarily can produce biodiesel from the rice bran extract for energy or extraterrestrial like Venus because lurking below the ocean as a building block for creating surfactants. floor is a place flooded with sCO2. But wait, there’s more, as the villainous CO2 can be used for So, there’s CO2 up above and sCO2 down below. We can supercritical fluid chromatography, or SFC. This technique demonstrate our evolution by better learning how to harness can be used for analytical or preparatory purposes.