The Advantages of Ethanol Extraction

Extraction technology is constantly evolving each year, which helps drive down associated costs, increase output volumes, and improve product quality. While these advancements are promising, the method you choose, how you operate, and which post-extraction processing steps you deem necessary will all determine the quality of the final product and what type of product you want. If you are making concentrates, there is no choice but to accept hydrocarbons, but if you are interested in eco-friendly terpene formulations, you will prefer CO2. But for volume THC extract, Ethanol is generally the winner.  

Ethanol versus Hydrocarbons and Carbon Dioxide

There is a place in the cannabis world for every style of extraction. Butane and propane are the most common solvents used in hydrocarbon extraction. The non-polarity of these hydrocarbons allows extractors to easily draw cannabinoids and terpenes out of plant material without accidentally stripping unwanted chlorophyll into the extract. Butane and propane are favoured over other longer-chain hydrocarbons because of their low boiling points. This enables these hydrocarbons to evaporate from the final product once extraction is complete readily.

Hydrocarbon extraction is considered one of the best methods for making cannabis concentrates; it is especially well-suited for creating live resin concentrates that use freshly harvested cannabis frozen immediately at harvest to preserve the maximum amount of terpene levels in the plant. This fresh-frozen biomass naturally has a much higher water content than the cured cannabis used in other extraction operations. So, an extraction that can be done at sub-zero temperatures while still removing terpenes efficiently – as with hydrocarbon extraction – will have the added benefit of keeping water-soluble components (such as anthocyanin pigments) ‘trapped’ in the frozen biomass and away from the extract.

Despite these advantages, the flammability and combustibility of hydrocarbon solvents present elevated safety risks if a leak or a fault occurs while large volumes of the solvents are in use. Many jurisdictions also impose limits on the allowable total volume of flammable hydrocarbon solvent that can be stored on-site and on the type and size of storage containers that can be used. Furthermore, only a limited number of hydrocarbon system manufacturers are producing Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)-compliant equipment, and there are no pharmaceutical GMP-approved hydrocarbon extraction systems to date.

To minimise or otherwise avoid these problems, many extractors have adopted supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2) extraction. In this method, CO2 gas is subjected to temperatures and pressures that transform it into a supercritical fluid: a state of matter with the properties of both a liquid and a gas. The gas-like qualities allow for the CO2 to permeate through the plant material, extracting cannabinoids and terpenes from the material as a liquid solvent would do.

This method, while effective, requires significant upfront costs in terms of equipment and employee training. To complicate matters further, ethanol has become a popular cosolvent in CO2 extraction to increase performance, and so if a cosolvent is being used, then suitable ethanol solvent storage facilities would need to be maintained on-site regardless. Additional post-processing efforts are also a common complaint as CO2 is non-selective and solubilises the fats, lipids, and water-soluble compounds. This requires the CO2 crude to be diluted 5:1 in ethanol to allow for adequate fractionation of triglycerides.

For these reasons, many high-volume THC extractors run ethanol-based extraction methods for producing cannabis extracts. While the method can be done under hot or cold conditions, the colder, “cryogenic” ethanol extraction technique is becoming increasingly popular. It is one of the safest methods to scale up. It can easily scale past 100 pounds to 1 ton per run, with minimal post-processing, and afford good throughput with minimal post-processing steps, providing a savings of people hours and equipment offsetting the higher cost of solvents. Also, for the GMP pharmaceutical world, ethanol is most common and accepted for equipment and processes and has been used in herbal medicine preparation long before cannabis extraction became medicinal.

Cryogenic Ethanol Extraction

The heart of this technique is the chilled ethanol solvent, which requires the use of industrial chillers and freezers to cool the solvent to temperatures below a minimum of -40°C for most cannabinoids like cannabidiol (CBD), or -60°C for high-quality delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) extraction. Below this temperature, undesirable compounds such as chlorophyll and waxes become insoluble and will not make it into the final extract.

Once the chilled ethanol has been prepared, it can be combined with the cannabis or hemp biomass inside the extraction vessel. The biomass is submerged in the chilled solvent and steeped for several minutes, extracting desirable cannabinoids from the plant material. Classic extraction principles can also be used where the biomass is quickly washed with a cold solvent so that only the trichomes are dissolved. Post extraction, the raffinate is processed through centrifugal force or steam replacement to leave the raffinate free of residual solvents. Finally, the micelle can be loaded into a rotary evaporator, falling film evaporator, or membrane filter to recover up to 97% of the solvent.  This leaves you with a crude extract that is ready to use or to be further refined through distillation. Many advanced systems like Devex are all in one solution. If scaling, you can easily start with equipment that does 100 pounds a shift and scale up to 1000 pounds a shift before getting into customised industrial systems. Notable, this scalable size does have stated extra equipment needs (e.g., chillers) and temperature requirements, which add to the ancillary costs and contribute to the total cost of operation, not to mention the ethanol cost itself.

Benefits of Ethanol Extraction

Cold ethanol extraction reaches the perfect balance between efficient extraction and optimal safety, making it such a powerful method for the modern extractor.

Unlike butane and CO2, ethanol does not need to be stored under pressure. And while ethanol is still flammable, it presents less explosion risk than butane — meaning it can be stored responsibly at room temperature and pressure in an appropriate non-flammable container. This risk is even further reduced when being stored at 0c or cooler.

Another practical perk is the low cost involved in ethanol extraction. Not only is the initial cost in terms of purchasing equipment much lower than other methods, but the continuous running costs are also comparably economical. Ethanol extraction’s throughput of 100 to 1000 pounds a shift and higher has operational costs of around $15 per pound of biomass, not including recapturing ethanol, CO2 around $12 per pound, and hydrocarbon around $11 per pound, assuming an 80% recovery.  Again, despite the lower solvent usage costs, you must consider post-processing costs and niche products you may want to develop. Additionally, high-quality ethanol can be bought slightly diluted with water to reduce costs. Instrumental-grade butane can be tricky to deliver to certain areas due to local, state territory, and country restrictions. Ethanol can be reclaimed during solvent recovery (normally through a rotary evaporator or falling film evaporator) and recycled multiple times before it needs to be replaced.

While CO2 and hydrocarbons have cheaper operating costs, it is important always to consider your end products in mind. In a medical market, and specifically in a pharmaceutical market, the products must have a consistent chemical purity.  With ethanol, most of the undesirable compounds are inhibited from solubilising, which results in a lower operating cost through reduced man-hours and redundant equipment costs.

Post-Extraction Processing

After performing cryogenic ethanol extraction, you will want to purify the crude oil. Some distillation machines, like the VTA 100, can process 3 to 3.5 litres an hour and are designed to run straight through with minimal operator needs. Through distillation, you can typically achieve 80% or higher total cannabinoid purification in one run, depending on the starting biomass potency. These levels are excellent for formulations in an herbal pharmaceutical market or, more precisely formulations in a recreational market.

However, to ensure the purity of medical-grade products for single cannabinoid formulations for pharmacological applications, this end product can be further refined using chromatography to generate higher purity (> 95%) cannabinoids like THC or minor cannabinoids like cannabichromene (CBC).

As an extractor, trying to match your budget, skill level, and desired output are all important when deciding which style of extraction equipment you want. The need for post-extraction equipment and clean-up processes will play a major role in the quality and costs. Extraction time and throughput, plus proper staffing, should all factor into your decision-making.