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Disruptive Cannabis Extraction Tech by Steve Fuhr

Disruptive technology is often an overused term. Truly radical changes and innovations are rare, but they do happen. Just think what life was like before the advent of computers or cars.

In the world of cannabis extraction, most processors use tech that’s more than 100 years old. Ethanol extraction came to be in 1879. At about the same time, Carl Benz invented the automobile, which was nothing more than a tricycle with a motor. CO2 extraction was invented in the Roaring 20s when the first “Model A” rolled off Henry Ford’s assembly line. The first closed-loop hydrocarbon extraction came about in the late 1930s, but it was very crude by today’s standards. In your mind, try to compare a bicycle to a Model A, then a Ford Escort to a Tesla, and you’ll get the picture.

Three highly disruptive technologies are about to be unleashed in the cannabis and hemp extraction world right now. When they gain full acceptance, like cars and computers, they will not only become ubiquitous, they will be seen as essential technology just to stay competitive. Companies will adopt new technology or be put out of business by it. The three key technologies are automation, membranes, and direct refrigeration with waste heat recovery. At SciPhy Systems in Portland, we have created a patented system called Symphase® to accomplish this new approach to thermal utilities.

DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY 1: AUTOMATION

Automation is quickly becoming universal in and of itself, taking over every industry in one way or another, for better or worse. Like cars, we curse and praise all these automations in the same breath, but the truth is inescapable. In almost every way, humans take longer to do a task that can be automated, and we make many more mistakes. Each of these inescapable facts hurts bottom-line profits, and often, they physically hurt humans in the process too. Whether it be an autoworker welding a car frame, a doctor doing surgery, or a coffee maker starting a pot before you wake up, automatons are here to stay.

For over a decade in the extraction world, we’ve designed lines that allow a forklift driver to load a super sack on one end of a production line, and out the other end, a finished distillate comes out. This type of automation, called process integration, simply links steps together in a continuous flow. A good example of this is Ford’s first assembly line, but that’s antiquated tech these days. While process integration is a key driver of efficiencies, modern systems utilize Programmable Automation using computers and robotics to optimize production. This is how Tesla and most car companies factory-build their cars today.

Modern extractors use a central computer such as a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) or IPC (Industrial Personal Computer) to control electronically actuated valves and monitor sensors that measure everything from pressure and temperatures to flow rates, performing tasks like tank-to-tank transfers, and the timing of pressure and temperature control. They enable one extractor to do the work of 5 people, which is a huge cost savings, and they let extractors scale the extraction system to produce much higher output. Programmable Automation also allows for programming repeatable high-precision formulas and recipes, increasing product consistency and lowering the error rate to almost zero, avoiding costly mistakes. Automations don’t get sick or harbor bad attitudes either. However, too much automation can cause problems when operators lose control, so the best automation systems allow for overrides and customizations in unique circumstances. We still need humans for this, until AI is omnipresent.

DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY 2: SIZE EXCLUSION MEMBRANES

Membrane technology, like X-Spiral, is another critical innovation in contemporary extraction technology and employs size exclusion filters to separate different particles. Like early computer-controlled automation, membranes were also invented in the mid-1900s, but like cars, they’ve come a long way. Tangential Flow Filtration (TFF) systems used for water filtration were first applied to cannabis oil purification over a decade ago, and the results were, shall we say, less than spectacular. OK, they were horrible. They were expensive, painfully slow, massive in size, and prone to failure, just like Ford’s Model A was.

As membrane tech improved, the costs came down as quality went up. These days, it’s not uncommon for extractors to replace $250,000 in Falling Film Evaporators and cryo-dewax systems with a $70,000 membrane system that’s ten times faster. Speed-wise, the smaller systems handle 60 gallons an hour (gph), and the biggest ones can blast through over 800 gph. These new filters push these high output speeds with tasks ranging from solvent recovery and dewaxing to de-coloring in ethanol solvents. In literal terms, processors can turn a 10-day process into one that only takes a few hours. It’s just like going 0-60 in 2 seconds in a 300 mph race car, or the Model A which only had a top speed of 60 mph. It’s just no contest.

The most cutting-edge membrane tech now works on light hydrocarbons like butane, which extractors prefer since its colder solvent recovery temperatures preserve terpenes that can be worth 10-30 times the cannabinoid’s value. Hydrocarbon membranes not only reduce or even eliminate the need for expensive, time-consuming media in decoloring. More importantly, the membranes can also separate whole terpene profiles (HTE) from cannabinoids, since no heat is applied. This creates a true broad-spectrum oil, maintaining the acid cannabinoids throughout, letting extractors grow pure THC-A diamonds much faster. Then extractors can decarboxylate the portion of a lot they want to add to vape pens, eliminating the need for costly and time-consuming distillation, and use the rest of the lot for high-profit dabbable products. This is like electric cars eliminating the need for oil changes or gas: truly disruptive technology.

DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY 3: WASTE HEAT RECOVERY

Last but not least, waste heat recovery is one of those technologies that makes you ask yourself, why didn’t we think of this sooner? It’s like the electric motor, which, not incidentally, was invented in 1834. We did think of it sooner – we just never applied it to cars sooner. “When we looked at the global landscape of leaders in processing technology, it was clear that the largest chemical companies in the world like BASF invest billions of dollars on waste heat recovery to solidify their competitive advantage.” Says SciPhy Systems CEO Emmett McGregor, “The opportunity to apply this approach to cannabis extraction was clear: combining direct refrigeration with waste heat recovery we made huge gains in energy efficiency and cost reduction using our patented Symphase® approach to process temperature control, starting with the HVH-50 extraction system.”

Devices like chillers utilize a refrigerant and compressor package to pull heat out of a thermal transfer fluid like water, propylene glycol, or other transfer fluids. The essence of direct refrigeration is cutting the losses caused by transferring from the refrigerant to transfer fluid, and then from fluid to process, instead of using the refrigerant from the compressor package and applying that directly to the process heat exchangers. In an extractor, this means chilling the solvent recovery condenser, and the extraction solvent tank down to sub-zero temperatures.

The patented Symphase® system takes advantage of this approach to the next level. It links the hot and cold sides of a refrigerant system to the process, removing heat from places it’s not needed in the system, and then using that heat that would otherwise be exhausted to drive other parts of the process like solvent recovery. Symphase® not only uses the waste heat from the process but also takes advantage of the available cooling capacity contained in the solution, doubling the efficiency advantages with a total thermal waste recovery approach. The result is faster solvent recovery and chilling using about 80% less energy, a result so unique and disruptive that the design was patented under the Symphase® brand. These hyper-efficient thermal management units, like the size exclusion membranes, qualify for Energy Efficiency Rebates through PUDs that can pay for half or more of the cost of buying them, just like the government rebates incentivize people to buy more efficient electric cars with tax credits.

PRODUCT ADOPTION LIFECYCLES

Every product’s lifecycle has key stages for adopting a new technology. Innovators and early adopters often pay dearly to live on the cutting edge of new technology, and they usually have the most problems too. Early and late majority adopters pay much less for more refined tech, reaping the lion’s share of the rewards. And then, there are what economists call the laggard. By the time laggards adopt a new technology, it’s been replaced by something even better. Laggards are always way behind the curve, which results in lower productivity and less profit.

The extraction technology mentioned here isn’t really “new” tech. More accurately it’s existing tech used in a new application. Savvy extractors buying it today would be classified as majority adopters, even though they would be in the minority today since most labs are lagging by using Byzantine technology. And if you’re making Hash or Rosin, it’s like bringing a horse to a hyper-car race.

Of course, people still race vintage cars these days, and horses too. There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as they know that’s just for fun. But if you pull up to the starting line of a Formula One race in a Model A, and the latest 300 mph electric Porsche that goes 0-60 mph in under 2 seconds pulls up next to you, by the time the Model A has warmed up on the line, the Porsche has broken 3 world speed records in the first lap.

In a world where rescheduling cannabis in the United States will cause massive consolidations on a national if not worldwide scale, leaving only the most efficient players competing in a global market, that’s exactly how this race will look for those who don’t keep up with the times.

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