As the processes of cannabinoid extraction continue to evolve, extractors are finding ways to fine-tune those processes. It’s important to understand how tuning your extraction equipment can impact your final product. The settings you use on your extraction equipment will alter the chemical profiles of your extract. This is similar to how extraction protocols impact the chemical profiles of cannabis extracts.
What Does Tuning Extraction Technology Mean?
Tuning extracting technology is the manipulation of extraction variables. The variables you can manipulate, or tune, are going to vary depending on the extraction equipment and methods you use. According to experts, some extraction methods are easier than others to tune.
For example, pure supercritical CO2 and CF3CH2F solvents are more easily manipulated than other solvents, like ethanol. This is possible thanks to the unique characteristics of these solvents during the supercritical phase. Manipulating extraction variables like pressure and temperature will alter the solvent’s properties. Doing so will allow operators to extract only specific cannabinoids based on the tuning criteria.
Extraction Tuning Variables
Moisture: Understanding the impact of moisture on your solvent is variable number one. Having too much or too little moisture greatly impacts the effectiveness of the solvent, and consequently, the final extract.
Particle Size: The size of your particles is another variable you can tune. Larger particles used in CO2 extraction slow down extraction rates and reduce total extraction amounts. Smaller particle sizes improve this, but if you go too small, then you risk running into potential channeling and clumping complications.
Balance of Mass: When you start extraction, you should know the exact terpene and cannabinoid content of your raw material.
Higher Performing Cannabinoid Products
Once you know which variables you can tune and how they affect your extraction process, you can start tuning. You should start out making minor, incremental changes to test how those changes affect your final extract. As more extractors experiment and learn how to tune their tech methods will be identified as superior for extracting specific cannabinoids. Since these methods will allow extractors to accurately hone in on specific cannabinoids, this improved accuracy will then be used to create higher-performing cannabinoid products.
