Below are the most commonly asked questions about our extraction process and product results.  Please contact us if you are looking for more specific details.

Q: What is the extraction process?

A: Cold Ethanol Extraction 

The process uses an extraction with cold ethanol in an extractor specifically designed for hemp extraction.  The ethanol is chilled to enhance to purity of the extract since the impurities namely fats, waxes and lipids are not soluble when the extraction solvent is cold (about -40 C).  The ethanol is recovered using a falling film evaporator that is specifically designed for solvent recovery.  The crude extract is then thermally decarboxylated by heating it after removing the ethanol and then the decarboxylated extract is then distilled by a CDU 1000 wipe film distillation unit.  The refined distillate often will begin to crystallize in the distillate depending on it CBD purity.  Crystalline CBD is removed from the mother liquor by filtration.
 
CBD
Q: How efficient is the process?

A: It Varies

The process efficiency is dependent on several factors most certainly the cannabinoid profile of the plant material extracted.  Industrial hemp is characterized by having a THC content less than 0.3% by weight.  THC and other minor cannabinoids and other compounds represent the other compounds that will co-distill with the CBD when we do the wipe film distillation.  Different plant varieties have different cannabinoid profiles with other non-THC or CBD cannabinoids could be several dozen different compounds at very low levels.  So the process efficiency to make CBD from hemp extraction depends on the other extractables that come along for the ride.  In practice it takes about 50 lbs (22.7 Kgs) of dried plant material to make about 1 kilogram of pure CBD isolate which is about 4% by weight yield.  There’s loss of CBD in the mother liquor from the CBD crystallization process which can be reconstituted up to three times before they will no longer crystallize CBD since it’s now enriched with the minor cannabinoids after getting 3 crops of crystals from it.  The more potent the plant material is in CBD without the minor cannabinoids like THC to interfere with crystalline formation of CBD enriched distillate, the more efficient the process will be from plant material to CBD product.
Q: What is the terpene profile?

A: Depends on the plant variety (strain)

The terpene profile will be a function of the terpene profiles of the plant varieties (ie. strain) extracted.  Some terpenes from the plant material are removed during the drying process.  Terpenes will be fractionated during the wipe film distillation process.  The profile of the terpenes isolated will be a fraction obtained.  In some cases, the terpene fraction smells great and in other cases it does not.  We have to do some R&D on terpene isolation to determine whether or not it’s useful to produce hemp derived terpenes for consumption.

Q: What percent is CBD in the isolate?

A: The purity of crystalline CBD isolate is 99.99%.

It is processed through a pharmaceutical grade chromatography stack

Q: Who performs third party testing and how accurate are they?

A: In-house and 3rd-party laboratories

There will be third party testing at state certified labs that will be providing COAs on the product.  These labs like Botanacor (https://www.botanacor.com/) are well versed at testing of CBD isolate using GLP methods used throughout the industry today to test CBD for purity and contamination assessments.  In addition there will be in house testing to analyze cannabinoid content of flower, extract intermediates and product samples.