The Modern Extractor

Cannabis oil distillation pioneer, Breaking Dabs, joins us for the second installment of our long interview.  This week he walks us through the his full SOPs for turning un-winterized crude into water-clear D9! From first pass distillation on a short path, to winterization, Mag-sil filtration, saline washes, finial distillation, and packaging. Get ready to take notes!

Cannabis oil distillation pioneer, Breaking Dabs, joins us to talk about the early days in the distillation game. We discuss his humble beginnings in the industry, and how his natural chemical curiosity and penchant for tinkering and exploration led him to the forefront of cannabis oil distillation as the industry emerged. Stay tuned for part 2 of the interview next week, where we will get technical with SOPs for water clear distillate, Breaking Dabs style! (Part 1 of 2)

DiNKLB3RG, master mycologist and Founder of Bat Country Cultures, joins us to discuss the science and techniques of extracting active alkaloids in mushrooms. We go through SOPs for soxhlet extraction and ultrasonic bath extraction, as well as discussing solvent choices and extraction system design. He is full of tips and tricks for every stage of mushroom extraction and finishing techniques! (Part 2 of 2)

DiNKLB3RG, master mycologist and Founder of Bat Country Cultures, joins us to discuss the science and techniques of mushroom breeding and cultivation. We go through SOPs ranging from home to industrial scale operations, and pick apart the various tools of the trade. He is full of tips and tricks for every stage of breeding and cultivation. (Part 1 of 2)

Sheldon Lotspeich, Co-Founder and CEO of Carbon Chemistry, joins us to discuss the science of cannabis oil purification and refinement through the use of media. We cover their full range of offerings, what they would be used for, and what is happening on a molecular level during the process. We also discuss why one would choose a powdered vs. a granular media, the fantastic new hires that Carbon Chemistry has recently made, and their one of a kind Carbon Bonding networking events.

Zack Lantz, Co-Founder and CTO of Illuminated Extractors, joins us to discuss their game changing LPG extraction systems. Join us as we discuss their innovative system designs which allow for efficient operation without ancillary chillers and solvent recovery rates that are unrivaled. We walk through their system offerings, as well as specific SOPs for extraction and finishing the highest end concentrates. Zack gives us the tek for his favorite, 'Water on Rocks'.

More interviews from The Modern Extractor booth on the floor of The Extraction Expo 2021. In this episode we talk to Luke Costello of Mach Technologies, Celeste Miranda of Mace Media Group, Brandon Bahr of Simple Solvents, Stephanie Salas of High Precision Gas, Lexis Shontz of Solvent Direct, Chris Lively of KNF Neuberger, and Andrew Yoon of Extractor Depot.

More interviews from the floor of MJBizcon 2021. In this episode we talk to Hayden Tucker of Trusteel, David Zelle of Bhogart, Dean Segal of Pope, and Durty Harrie of California Gold.

Kyle Detwiler, CEO of Clever Leaves, joins us to discuss Clever Leaves' approach to running an international cannabis business. We talk about the mountains of red tape that needed to be cut to import DEA scheduled cannabinoids into the US and other major markets, as well as what that may mean for the existing markets and supply chains they're disrupting.

Ryan Bellone, Commercial Director of KCA Labs, joins us to discuss analytical lab testing of cannabinoids. We go deep into the instruments and methods used to accurately identify and quantify the compounds present in a sample. We also get into analytical standards, how they're produced, and the uphill battle the lab testing industry is fighting to create the standards needed to test all the new cannabinoids hitting the market.

David Hall, Director of Products for Ispire, joins us to discuss the hardware we use to consume our cannabis concentrates. We go deep into the anatomy of a vape cartridge, and follow oil through the device from tank to vapor. We also get into their award winning Wand induction heated e-torch, and their Daab induction heated handheld rig. Tune in quick to learn how to enter the Ispire giveaway, where we teamed up to give away 3 Wand e-torches to lucky Mod-Ex listeners!

Levi Lanzrath, Founder and CEO of Low Temp Plates, joins us to discuss the finer points of hash production. Join us as we discuss the machines and specific SOPs used to create award winning hash. We also get into the economics of hash and rosin production, from yields to current market conditions.

Levi Lanzrath, Founder and CEO of Low Temp Plates, joins us to discuss the finer points of rosin production. Join us as we discuss the specific SOPs used to create top shelf rosin. We cover material selection and filtration choices, as well as temperatures and pressures for producing premium product.

Tim Collins, Co-Founder and CEO Of Arometrix joins us to discuss their groundbreaking fraction finder and extraction finder devices.

Interviews from the floor of MJBizcon 2021. In this episode we talk to Jack Naito of Luna Technologies, Tim Collins of Digivac, Zev Feinstein of Molecular Forces Consulting, Peter and Michael of Artisan Industries, and Anthony Arloro of Across International.

The second edition of interviews from the Good Life Gang Media Suite at Encore Las Vegas during MJBizcon. In this episode we talk to Ken White of White Scientific Consulting and Imperium Extracts, Jay Horton, founder of Genovations, Tom Pickens, CEO of AgLab, and Corey North, Founder of Clear Extraction Solutions.

The first edition of interviews from the Good Life Gang Media Suite at Encore Las Vegas during MJBizcon. In this episode we talk to Jacqueline McGrane, @shattergurljacqueline, SVP of Business Development for Boulder Creek Technologies about their groundbreaking Vapor Static Extraction System. This was probably the most disruptive tech released at MJBizcon this year. We also talk to Fernando of Voodoo Extracts for real talk about California's cannabis black market. He takes us on a walk through the life of a traditional market producer, with first hand stories of paying off city officials and his headline-catching desert grow busts. Last but not least, we catch up with Photon Noir, one of the pioneers that helped shape modern closed loop hydrocarbon extraction. Dylan is full of stories from the early days, and walks us through his work with FOAF on developing of the original 'Honey Pot' closed loop system.

Another installment of in-person interviews recorded on the floor of The Extraction Expo in Los Angeles! In this episode we have some short interviews with the great guests listed below: Sheldon Lotspeich - Founder & CEO of Carbon Chemistry Cameron Matin - Director Of Accounts at Infinite Chemical Analysis Labs Neena Batth-Sihota - Founder & CEO of SanDayV Radiant Hoang - Founder & CEO of Delta Munchies Devon Miller - Founder & CEO of Hi On Nature George Stantchev - CEO of Comerg Karen Galas - CEO of Alchemy Extractors

In-person interviews recorded on the floor of The Extraction Expo in Los Angeles! In this episode we have some short interviews with the great guests listed below: Randy Reed - Co-Founder, Lehua Brands Katie Urbano - Operations Manager, 3-Chi Alexandra Harris - Host, CannaSci podcast / LA NORML David Anthony Schroeder - Author, 7 Ways To Manage Pain With CBD Dr. Bau Thai - Founder, Rapid Nerve Rescue Steve Bonde - CTO, Boulder Creek Technologies

Dr. Jason Lupoi, Editor In Chief of Extraction Magazine and Terpenes and Testing Magazine, joins us to discuss their cutting edge coverage of the extraction and psychedelics industries. We cover their dedication to ensuring scientific accuracy, as well as what we may find inside their industry leading content. We also get into the upcoming Extraction Expo and what attendees can expect to find in the presentation rooms and on the Expo floor.

Industry insider, Catherine Sidman, AKA Sidco_Cat, joins us to discuss her role in the extraction and psychedelics industries. Whether she's hosting a podcast, moderating panels, advocating for plant medicine, or connecting the right people, Catherine is always up in the mix for latest the industry has to offer. She's been in it since the early days, and has played a big role in connecting the dots that allowed the industry to take the shape that it has today.

The master of hash, Frenchy Cannoli, joins us to discuss the evolution of hash making. We cover the history of hash, as well as Frenchy's history of traveling the world learning ancient production techniques from most of the major producing countries. We get into how Frenchy took the knowledge he collected and used it to develop the SOPs and equipment that he used to produce some of the best hash in the world.

Dr. Jon Thompson, founder of extraktLAB, joins us to discuss cannabinoid conversions. We cover Delta 8 THC and other isomers that have been making waves in the industry. We dive into the industry and legal politics surrounding these cannabinoids, as well as the equipment and SOPs you'll need to perform a successful and safe conversion.

Kyler Buck and Jack Naito, co-founders of Luna Technologies, join us to discuss their automated hydrocarbon extraction systems. We cover how automation helps operators consistently produce high quality, repeatable results. Jack and Kyler break down how their automation systems work, what the inputs are reading, what the outputs are controlling, and how much more efficient an automated system can be.

Randy Reed, co-founder of Lehua Brands, joins us to discuss modern CO2 extraction techniques and SOPs. We explore just how CO2 offers extractors more control than any other extraction style. Randy breaks down his approach to fractional extraction, and the potential for extracting many of the same concentrates that require post processing with other extraction styles.

Dustin Powers, co-founder of Future 4200, joins us to discuss how the premiere cannabis processing technology forum came to be. We get into all of the perks, politics, and pitfalls that come with being the face of an online community that changed the course of the cannabis extraction industry.

JD Ellis, AKA Graywolf, joins us to tell the tales of early hydrocarbon extraction, and the path that led him to designing a closed loop BHO extraction system. We cover extraction equipment, the closed loop design process, some crazy stories from the early days, and how JD applies extraction science in the kitchen. (Of course he does!) Graywolf is a pioneer of cannabis extraction, and his contributions have helped shape an industry. From all of us extractors out here, thank you JD!

WiLLBiLLy, inventor of the notorious blue sapphire THCa crystals and founder of WiLLBiLLy Productions, joins us to discuss specific SOPs for hydrocarbon extraction and the finishing techniques that it takes to create all the various craft concentrates this extraction style can produce. We cover how to produce quality hydrocarbon crude, and how to manipulate it into different finishes.

Vaughn Hartung, founder of Media Bros. joins us to discuss the use of CRC and filtration media in hydrocarbon extraction systems. We break down what CRC is, why we'd use it, how we'd use it, and why CRC is such a polarizing topic. We also get into Media Bros. unconventional approach to running a business and what they're doing to make sure they're putting extractors first.

Boris Kogon of Bizzy Bee joins us to discuss Bizzy Bee's revolutionary closed loop hydrocarbon cannabis extraction systems. We get into his approach to building modular extraction systems which utilize the 'thermodymagic' that allows for passive solvent recovery.

Lexis Shontz of Solvent Direct joins us to discuss the various solvents and solvent blends used in hydrocarbon and ethanol extraction of cannabis. We get into their methods for making sure the highest quality solvents in the industry are delivered in a safe, fast, and efficient manner.

Alex Barsky of C1D1 Labs joins us to discuss how to get your facility up and running safely and efficiently. We cover how to meet and exceed facility and equipment safety requirements imposed by your local municipality, as well as how C1D1 Labs' modular or pre-fab extraction booths can speed up your permitting process.

Jason Showard walks listeners through an overview of the hydrocarbon extraction and post processing workflow, taking cannabis from cultivar to concentrate.

Zev Feinstein of Molecular Forces joins us to discuss organic solvent nanofiltration of cannabis extracts. We discuss how his X-Spiral, and the OSN process can allow extractors to avoid winterization after extracting at room temperature. We also cover how OSN technology can replace industry standard solvent recovery practices. This disruptive technology is poised to make some big waves in the extraction industry!

Luke Van Trieste of BR Instruments joins us to discuss CBD isolate crystallization. We get deep into the equipment, solvents, and SOPs used to crash out those crystals. We cover static and dynamic crystallization, as well as the continuous flow processes that are beginning to come online. In addition to the BR Instrument crystallization reactors, we discuss their patented spinning band distillation equipment. EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: Jason Showard - 00:00:10  Hello and welcome to Episode nine of The Modern Extractor. This podcast focuses on the processes, equipment and science found in a cannabis extraction laboratory. I'm your host Jason Showard, and I work professionally in the cannabis extraction field. Here in season one, we're focusing on ethanol extraction and post processing, with each episode digging into a particular stage in that process. The shows are released in an order that follows the workflow through a lab as material makes its way from cultivar to concentrate.    Jason Showard - 00:00:39  Last week we had Jay Horton on the show. He's the founder of Genovations and the man that got me started distilling cannabis. We talked specific SOPs for wiped film and rolled film distillation. We went through how to push your machine to the absolute limit and get the maximum throughput out of a wiper. He hit us with a ton of distillation knowledge gained from his years of experience in the trenches cranking out liters, as well as his experience installing and training on Chemtech equipment.    Jason Showard - 00:01:05  Moving on to this week's show, let's catch back up with a work in progress. So far, we've performed a cold ethanol extraction in a centrifuge. We've cold filtered the resulting miscella through a lenticular filter. We ran the filtered miscella through a falling film evaporator to separate the oil and the ethanol. We decarboxylated the crude oil to convert the cannabinoids. We terp stripped, then we distilled the oil, creating some beautiful golden distillate. As I said last week, distillate is the end of the line for THC.    Jason Showard - 00:01:34  But today we'll take CBD distillate a step further in the purification process and crystallize it into 99.9% pure CBD isolate. Joining me on the show today is a man who has processed many a kilo of isolate. He's very well versed in the equipment, solvents and processes of CBD crystallization. He's usually found flying around the world installing and training on BR instrument crystallization reactors, as well as their patented spinning band distillation equipment. He certainly knows his way around a cannabis extraction laboratory.    Jason Showard - 00:02:06  Luke Van Trieste, welcome to The Modern Extractor.    Luke Van Trieste - 00:02:09  Hi, thanks for having me.    Jason Showard - 00:02:10  Absolutely. Where are you calling in from today?    Luke Van Trieste - 00:02:13  I live just outside Baltimore, Maryland.    Jason Showard - 00:02:15  Right on. You were telling me earlier it's a snowy day out there. It's a rainy day here in Los Angeles.    Luke Van Trieste - 00:02:21  Yeah, plenty of bad weather lately this winter.    Jason Showard - 00:02:25  So talk to me a little bit about your path to joining BR instruments.    Luke Van Trieste - 00:02:31  So this is actually my 10th year at BR Instrument. I basically started off in high school doing graphic design content and creating marketing materials. I worked there through most of high school and college, until I got my degree in chemistry. And then I transitioned into my role, into doing installations and trainings. So if you buy a piece of our equipment, there's a...

Look no further for DISTILLATION SOPs! Jay Horton joins us to discuss getting maximum throughput and high quality distillates out of you wiped film distillation unit. We cover specific SOPs for terpenoid removal (terp strip) and cannabinoid distillation for both THC and CBD. We discuss getting maximum throughput on a single stage machine, as well as various ways to configure your multi stage distillation unit to maximize your results. Jay's 'split the stream' technique will get you the highest quality and largest quantity yields out of your multi-stage wiper. EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: Jason Showard - 00:00:11  Hello and welcome to Episode eight of The Modern Extractor. This podcast focuses on the processes, equipment and science found in a cannabis extraction laboratory. I'm your host Jason Showard, and I work professionally in the cannabis extraction field. Here in season one, we're focusing on ethanol extraction and post processing. With each episode digging deep into a particular stage in that process. The shows are released in an order that follows the workflow through lab, as material makes its way from Cultivar to concentrate.    Jason Showard - 00:00:37  Last week we had John Hart, founder and CEO of Chemtech Services, on the show to talk about wiped film and rolled film distillation. He broke down what's going on inside of a wiped film distillation unit and helped make some sense of it. He hit us with a ton of distillation knowledge gained through his years of experience building high tech equipment for the chemical industry. Moving on to this week's show, let's catch back up with our work in progress. So far, we've performed a cold ethanol extraction in the centrifuge.    Jason Showard - 00:01:03  We've cold filtered the resulting miscella through a lenticular filter. We ran the filtered miscella through a falling film evaporator to separate the oil and the ethanol. And we decarboxylated the crude oil, converting the THC A or CBD A into THC or CBD. This week we're going to get into specific SOPs for removal of the terpenoids, also known as terp stripping, followed by distillation of THC and CBD. It's a big day today guys. We're finally going to make some sellable product.    Jason Showard - 00:01:30  Joining me on the show today is the man that got me started distilling cannabinoids. He's usually flying around the world installing and training on Chemtech's distillation equipment, or doing some type of cannabis lab consulting. He's the founder of Genovations and quite a veteran in the cannabis lab space. Jay Horton, welcome to The Modern Extractor.    Jay Horton - 00:01:47  Hello, Jason.    Jason Showard - 00:01:48  Where are you calling in from today?    Jay Horton - 00:01:49  I'm currently in Los Angeles.    Jason Showard - 00:01:51  All right. Yeah, I'm also here in Los Angeles, still hunkering down. So I met you years ago when you installed the first wiped film unit I ever worked with, at the company I was working for. It was a Chemtech Mini 5. By the time we were done, strapping upgrades to it, it was almost KD6. Since then, you started your own company, Genovations. Tell us a little bit about how you got into the field and what the path was like to starting your own business.    Jay Horton - 00:02:20  OK, so in around 2006, I moved to Oregon and got into the medical program and I was doing cultivation. In around 2013, I started working with the company that was looking into CO2 extraction very early on. We went up to Washington to visit Fritz and checked out his systems, and it was some of the first ones he was making. And we did our research on waters as well, and we decided on getting a water system. So that's kind of where I transitioned from, cultivation into extraction.    Jay Horton -...

Learn how a wiped film evaporator works from the man that makes 'em best. John Hart, founder of Chemtech Services, joins us to discuss how his rolled film distillation machines are the best in the biz for the distillation of cannabis oil. John and Jason discuss the latest equipment offerings and innovations Chemtech is bringing to market, as well as the advantages to using multi-stage distillation units. EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: Jason Showard - 00:00:10  Hello and welcome to Episode Seven of The Modern Extractor. This podcast focuses on the processes, equipment and science found inside a cannabis extraction laboratory. I'm your host Jason Showard, and I work professionally in the cannabis extraction field. Here in season one, we're focusing on ethanol extraction and post processing. With each episode digging deep into a particular stage in that process. The shows are released in an order that follows the workflow through a lab, as material makes its way from cultivar to concentrate.    Jason Showard - 00:00:39  Last week we had Greg Arias of Concentrated Science and Aftermath Labs on the show. He helped us demystify decarboxylation on a molecular level. We talked a bit about the differences between decarbing THC versus CBD. And I talked through my decarb SOPs. Moving on to this week's show, let's catch back up with our material on its way through the lab. So far we've performed a cold ethanol extraction in a centrifuge. We cold filtered the resulting miscella through an insecure filter.    Jason Showard - 00:01:06  We ran that miscella through a falling film evaporator to separate the oil and the ethanol. And we decarboxylated the crude oil we separated, converting the acidic forms of the cannabinoids into THC or CBD. This week we make our way to the most complicated machine in the lab, the wiped film evaporator. Technically, we'll be talking about a rolled film evaporator today, which is the best style of wiped film for use in the cannabis sector. Joining us today to discuss rolled film distillation is John Hart, founder of Chemtech Services.    Jason Showard - 00:01:35  John and his team currently have a ton of equipment out there in the field. You'll find their machines installed at the premier cannabis processing laboratories throughout the country and all over the world. They're always working on developing new equipment for our industry and interesting R&D projects. But I'll let John tell you all about that. Without any further ado, John Hart, welcome to The Modern Extractor.    John Hart - 00:01:54  Oh, thank you very much, Jason. Happy to be participating.    Jason Showard - 00:01:57  Absolutely glad to have you on today. Where are you calling in from?    John Hart - 00:02:01  Calling in from our headquarters in Lockport, Illinois. Lockport's a suburb of Chicago.    Jason Showard - 00:02:09  Right on. All right. What's the weather like out there right now?    John Hart - 00:02:12  We have an amazingly sunny day here. Unfortunately, it's really cold. It's about 20 degrees Fahrenheit.    Jason Showard - 00:02:20  All right. I'm in Los Angeles now. It's got a little rain recently, but we could use it. All right. Anyway, what was your path like to starting Chemtech?    John Hart - 00:02:32  OK, so I'd spent most of my career working for a couple of major chemical companies, and I did a lot of things. I mean, I did mergers and acquisitions. I was an engineer on the technical side. So I was also building or let's say managing the construction of chemical plants in addition to chemical plants around the world. And I, you know, in the early part of my career, I spent about 60% of my time outside of the United States.    John Hart - 00:03:00 ...

Learn the ins and outs of decarboxylation from Greg Arias, co-founder of Concentrated Science. Greg and Jason discuss what is actually happening on a molecular level when decarbing your material, as well as specific SOPs for a streamlined and efficient decarb process. EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: Jason Showard - 00:00:10  Hello and welcome to episode six of The Modern Extractor. This podcast focuses on the processes, equipment, and science found inside a cannabis extraction laboratory. I'm your host Jason Showard, and I work professionally in the cannabis extraction field. Here in season one, we're focusing on ethanol extraction and post-processing, with each episode digging deep into a particular stage in that process. The shows are released in an order that follows the workflow through a lab, as material makes its way from Cultivar to concentrate.    Jason Showard - 00:00:39  Last week on the show, we had Ray Van Lenten, founder and CEO of TruSteel on to help us break down falling film evaporation. Ray hooked us up with some amazing tips and tricks to get the most out of a falling film. He also broke down his decarb SOPs for use on their DR 10 decarboxylation unit. That's the same unit that I use and I absolutely love it. Moving on to this week's show, let's catch back up with our material on its way through the lab.    Jason Showard - 00:01:06  We've performed a cold ethanol extraction in a centrifuge and cold filtered it through a lenticular filter. Last week we took the resulting miscella and ran it through a Falling film evaporator to separate the oil we're after from the ethanol that we used to extract it. We were left with ethanol that's going to be sent back and used for future extractions and crude oil, which we're going to decarboxylate today. We heard Ray's decarb tech last week. But mine's a bit different. Let's get into it.    Jason Showard - 00:01:33  Now, I'd agree with Ray that a nitrogen sparge to push the air out of your decarb unit is ideal, but I've gotten pretty good results without doing it. Since, unlike Ray, I remove the solvent under vacuum. First off, fire up your cold trap chiller to protect your vacuum system. The condenser will catch any solvents removed from the crude. I like to bring my crude oil in and hold it at eighty degrees Celsius under vacuum of about -30 inches of mercury.    Jason Showard - 00:01:57  While it boils the remaining solvent off. It's important not to overfill the unit while doing this, or you can get some bumping of product into your condenser. This is a mess and it sucks to deal with, so don't overdo it. If you end up too full, you can lower your vacuum level a little bit. I bought the fourth ever DR 10 from TruSteel, so mine doesn't have an internal thermocouple to read the process temperature. I usually wait about fifteen minutes at 80C, then kick it up to 90 for about another ten minutes just to ensure all the solvent's gone.    Jason Showard - 00:02:25  Once I'm sure all the residual solvents are gone, I set my heater to 110C and start a timer for 40 minutes. Keep in mind that my process temp is 90 when I set that timer. Since I don't have an internal thermocouple, I don't have the ability to check the process temperature. So we just had to send out some lab tests along the way to make sure our decarb was going correctly. The oil makes it to 110 in, I would guess about ten minutes after I set it there, then spends another 30 at 110.    Jason Showard - 00:02:54  Then I immediately set the temperature on the heater back down to 70. Again, I'm using an older DR 10, so I don't have the ability to cool my process down like the fancy new ones do. Once my heater reads an incoming temperature of 70, I'll drain the decarbed crude out of the system and send it on to the next...

Learn the ins and outs of solvent recovery from Ray Van Lenten, founder and CTO of Trusteel. Trusteel's falling film evaporators completely revolutionized the solvent recovery game in 2018. Since then they've released an end to end suite of equipment to take you all the way through the extraction and distillation processes. Hear how Trusteel's gear can help break your lab's bottlenecks and streamline your operation. Ray gives us some awesome tips and tricks to speed you up on the falling film that definitely aren't in the owner's manual. Hear his SOPs for solvent recovery on the Autovap line, and his SOPs for decarboxylation in the DR-10. We've got times, temperatures, pressures, and feed rates on all the gear, and a special bonus at the end of the episode... METAL! EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: Jason Showard - 00:00:11  Hello and welcome to episode five of The Modern Extractor. The podcast that focuses on the processes, equipment and science found inside a cannabis extraction laboratory. I'm your host, Jason Showard, and I work professionally in the cannabis extraction field. Here in season one, we're focusing on ethanol extraction and post processing. With each episode digging deep into a particular stage in that process. The shows are released in an order that follows the workflow through a lab, as material makes its way from cultivar to concentrate.    Jason Showard - 00:00:40  Last week on The Modern Extractor, we had Maria Peterson on from Scott Laboratories to help us break down the intricacies of filtration. She's my go to filtration expert over at Scott. And with the help of her and Scott products, I've been able to get beautifully filtered extracts for years. Upon listening back to last week's show, it occurred to me that I really didn't mention Buechner filters and vacuum filtration. Probably because my brain somehow blocked it out as a defense mechanism.    Jason Showard - 00:01:06  But this is the way things were done for a long time. It's a very slow and miserable process where lots of things can go wrong. There's messes and broken filter papers and the list goes on. It's just not recommended for production scale. But for lab scale, it's not terrible to have one around for experiments. If you're using vacuum filtration or Buechner filters for production, Scott Labs' lenticular will absolutely change your life. Also, upon listening back, I realized that I didn't stress quite enough how important it is to filter while cold.    Jason Showard - 00:01:35  I've always tried to make sure that my miscella made its way through the filter before it had a chance to rise above -35 Celsius. Moving on to this week's show, let's catch back up with our material on its way through the lab. We've performed a cold ethanol extraction in a centrifuge, and cold filtered through a lenticular filter. This leaves us with a nicely filtered mix of cannabis oil dissolved in ethanol, which we refer to as tincture or miscella.    Jason Showard - 00:01:59  The next stage in the process is almost every extraction operations bottleneck, which is solvent recovery. One of our show's listeners, Tommy Ethanol, hit me up on Future4200 and said that I shouldn't skip over Rotary Evaporators and jump right into falling film evaporation. He's right. I shouldn't. I really wanted to, but I shouldn't. I think rotovaps for solvent recovery fall into a similar category in my mind, as the Buechner filtration I mentioned a few minutes ago. Something we'd all like to forget but are worth mentioning.    Jason Showard - 00:02:26  If anything, an understanding of the way things were for so long yesterday, makes us appreciate the way things are today a little bit more. It's worth noting here that it doesn't hurt to have a rotovap around the lab for other purposes. But a roto is definitely not where you

Come on down the filtration rabbit hole! Jason discusses all things filtration with guest Maria Peterson of Scott Laboratories. Maria Explains why Scott Labs' lenticular filters are the best tool for the job when filtering your cannabis extracts. Also discussed are bag filtration, large scale cross flow filtration systems and how to build the ideal staged filter system to minimize your downtime and maximize your throughput. EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: Jason Showard - 00:00:10  Hello and welcome to episode four of The Modern Extractor. This podcast focuses on the processes, equipment and science found inside a cannabis extraction laboratory. I'm your host, Jason Showard, and I work professionally in the cannabis extraction field. Here in season one. We're focusing on ethanol extraction and post-processing, with each episode digging deep into a particular stage in that process. The shows are released in an order that follows the progress of material through a lab as it makes its way from cultivar to concentrate.    Jason Showard - 00:00:40  First, let me take a minute to thank all the new listeners that have poured in over the last week. The show went from me being stoked every time I'd get a listener to, who are probably my friends that I sent links to, to absolutely blowing up over the last few days. Putting the show together is taking a lot of hard work and seeing the metrics go nuts makes it all 100 percent worthwhile. So very sincere and heartfelt thank you from me to all of you for tuning in.    Jason Showard - 00:01:03  Now, if I can talk you guys into subscribing and rating and reviewing the show, it'll help me book awesome guests for you in the future. Last week on the morning extractor, we had Adam Chambers on from Delta Separations to give us the latest from Delta. As a long-time processor prior to joining the Delta team, he gave us his go-to S.O.Ps for cold centrifugal extraction, as well as a ton of general extraction knowledge. This week takes us to the next stage, which is the filtration process.    Jason Showard - 00:01:27  Filtration is a difficult concept to wrap your head around. There's a lot of theorizing that goes on when you start to try to pick it apart. It certainly has a lot of feel to it, and it's hard to collect hard data about how and why things are happening. If you're the local filtration expert at your facility, that's certainly worth a feather in your cap. But if you're the filtration expert at the filter company, that makes you a complete boss in my book.    Jason Showard - 00:01:48  And that's exactly who we have with us today. Maria Peterson from Scott Laboratories is joining us on the show to discuss filtration. She's by far the most knowledgeable person I've ever spoken to on the subject. And I learned something new from her every time I get her on the phone. So without any further ado, Maria Peterson, welcome to the show. I'm really excited to have you on today. Tell us a little bit about your journey to becoming the filtration expert at Scott Laboratories.    Maria Peterson - 00:02:10  I was a winemaker for ten, I think about ten years. All over the world and kind of floated from one hemisphere to the next to be able to do two harvests in the same year and get as much experience as I could. Because, you know, you can go to university and get a degree in something. But then once you leave, you really quickly find out that, you know nothing.    Maria Peterson - 00:02:38  You know very little about the practicalities of making wine and getting something into a bottle, you know. That is that is quite the thing. So then my journey eventually led me to the US, and I met the folks at Scott Labs. And, you know, the conversation started like, "We need this person that can talk to other customers about filtration." And

Learn the tricks of the trade for centrifugal ethanol extraction. Jason talks to Adam Chambers of Delta Separations about how their CUP line of ethanol extractors are the best tool for extracting the most out of your biomass, as well as all the other equipment offerings Delta has released recently. Times, temperatures, and SOPs that Delta usually charges for training on are 'extracted' in this interview. EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: Jason Showard - 00:00:11  Hello and welcome to Episode three of The Modern Extractor, the podcast that focuses on the processes, equipment and science found in a cannabis extraction laboratory. I'm your host, Jason Showard, and I work professionally in the cannabis extraction field. Here in season one, we're focusing on ethanol extraction and post-processing. With each episode digging deep into a particular stage in that process. The shows are released in an order that follows the progress of material through a lab, following it from Cultivar to concentrate.    Jason Showard - 00:00:39  Last week we discussed how to select quality biomass to extract from. After listening back to the show, I feel like I said a lot about what could go wrong there and neglected to mention that forming great relationships with your local growers is the absolute best way to consistently get quality biomass. In the second half of last week's show, we talked to Bri Tolp from Futurola about how their shredders can get you to your ideal mill sites for extraction. It was a great show and definitely worth a listen if you haven't already.    Jason Showard - 00:01:08  This week takes us to the next stage, which is the extraction process. We've got Adam Chambers from Delta Separations on today to give us the latest from Delta, as well as breakdown how their revolutionary CUP Series centrifuges will get you the most out of your material. So without any further ado, Adam Chambers, welcome to The Modern Extractor.    Adam Chambers - 00:01:28  It's great to be here. Looking forward to this.    Jason Showard - 00:01:30  Absolutely. Yeah. We're excited to have you as far as starting off with you. Where are you calling in from today?    Adam Chambers - 00:01:36  So today I'm speaking to you guys from the conference room here at Delta Separations in Cotati, California, just north of San Francisco and south of Santa Rosa. It's the main headquarters for Delta Separations and it's where we've been full time for the last couple of years and has been our home, this acquisition, and this strange year that we've had.    Jason Showard - 00:01:59  OK, great. Tell me a little bit about your journey to Delta and how you ended up working there.    Adam Chambers - 00:02:06  Of course, I don't think it would be uncommon to say that a lot of the people here at Delta, their route to the company was somewhat unconventional and I'm no exception. I studied forensic molecular biology, got a minor in chemistry and physics at the Virginia Commonwealth University. After graduating, I moved back over to Europe. I am half British in case that's of any consequence. And my father lives in Mediterranean Spain. I spent a couple of years up there just kind of figuring out what I was going to do.    Adam Chambers - 00:02:43  And I was invited to open an ethanol extraction facility in Southern California and in Coachella. And so I, you know, two weeks later, I was on a plane. And I had, and that was where I'd kind of get my start. And in the middle of the Mojave, really hot, inhospitable environment but we threw together some shipping containers that we retrofitted ourselves. And did the electrical and all of that stuff. And fitted with our own homemade extraction system with pumps and some basic...

Learn the tricks of the trade when it comes to selecting the highest quality biomass and preparing it for extraction. Jason talks to Bri Tolp of Futurola about how their shredders are the best tool for getting to your ideal mill size. EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: Jason Showard - 00:00:10  Hello and welcome to Episode two of The Modern Extractor, a podcast focusing on the processes, equipment, and science found inside a cannabis extraction lab. I'm your host, Jason Showered, and I work professionally in the cannabis extraction field. If you've listened to any of the previous shows, you know that season one is focused on ethanol extraction and post-processing. And each episode focuses on a particular stage in that process following the material through the lab from start to finish. If you haven't listened to any of the previous shows, welcome to the Modern Extractor.  Jason Showard - 00:00:40  In today's show, we'll be talking about how to select the right biomass for extraction, as well as how to prepare that biomass for the most efficient extraction possible. We'll have Bri Tolp from Futurola on with us later in the show to talk about how their shredders are the best tool to get you to your ideal mill size. But first, let's talk a bit about how to find good material to extract from. Obviously, the easiest way to do this is to get a sample, send it to a lab, wait for the results, and then purchase material that meets the right cannabinoid concentration specs for whatever you're trying to produce.    Jason Showard - 00:01:12  In a perfect world, there would always be time for this and it's absolutely how it's done for the large-scale industrial operations. It's really important to buy this way if you're a CBD producer buying hemp, so that you can ensure the material is not too high in THC content. Buying hot hemp could actually cost you more in chromatography to remediate the THC from the final product than the CBD will be worth in the end. There isn't always time to wait for lab results in the procurement process.    Jason Showard - 00:01:38  And this is where an experienced eye can make a big difference in your bottom line. If you're at the scale where you're extracting a thousand pounds or more weekly, it's unlikely that all your biomass is coming from the same farm all year round. That means that there's likely to be a broker involved who is collecting from a bunch of different farms to sell to extractors. With that being the case, there are often many different batches of biomass added to one load.    Jason Showard - 00:02:00  Hopefully they're separated, often they aren't. Hopefully the broker will tell you the story behind the load, but well, brokers. And even if you trust your broker, he could have been misled. So a thorough inspection isn't rude. It's just good business. First things first. We're going to look at all the different bags. The actual physical bags that the material's inside of. Not every farm packs their material up the same way. Not every store sells the same bags.    Jason Showard - 00:02:26  Is there any tape on any of the bags? How are they closed or tied? This will be our first clue as to whether or not there are multiple batches in the load. If there does appear to be multiple batches, we're going to want to open and inspect a couple of bags from each. Dig down past the top and into the middle of the bag. Get a good handful, pull it out, palm up, give it a good squeeze in your hand and then let go.    Jason Showard - 00:02:48  Good material will stick together when you let go and keep the same basic shape it was when it was squeezed in your hand. We call this the squeeze test. After the squeeze, rub it together between your hands like you're warming up at a fire. See how crumbly it is. If it turns to dust, it's not ideal,...

Jason Showard walks listeners through an overview of the extraction, distillation, and crystallization processes used to take cannabis from cultivars to concentrates. Episode Transcript: Hello, and welcome to the modern extractor. I'm your host, Jason Showard. And I work professionally in the cannabis extraction field. After years of experimentation tens of thousands of dollars in lab tests to collect data from those experiments, and hundreds of thousands of pounds of biomass successfully extracted and distilled. I decided to spill my secrets to you with this podcast. The modern extractor will be focusing on the processes, equipment and science found inside a cannabis extraction laboratory. I've yet to find a curated collection of extraction knowledge, and that's exactly what I'm going to build here. I decided to produce this podcast because I kept looking for something like it to listen to, and it just didn't exist. In Season One, we'll be focusing on ethanol extraction and post processing and either distillate or isolate. The shows will be released in an order which follows the workflow of material through a lab. Each episode will dig deep into a particular stage in that workflow and discuss the various approaches with industry expert guests. In today's show, we'll be taking a bird's eye view of the entire ethanol extraction and post processing workflow. For the sake of simplicity, and getting through the whole process in one show, this will be a less technical overview of the full process. For this overview, I'll be following what I believe to be the best approach to ethanol extraction. in future episodes, we'll dig deeper into each of the stages and pick apart the different options and approaches a lot more technically, think of this as both a walk through the process and a syllabus for what lies ahead in season one. So after this week's overview, next week, in Episode Two, we'll talk about sourcing biomass and prepping it for extraction. The first step in any extraction operation is getting your hands on good material to extract from. Obviously, the ideal situation is to get a sample of the material you're interested in buying, send it to a lab and have the seller agree to hold the material for you until the test results come back and tell you exactly how much of each cannabinoid is present before you buy it. But this is a fast moving field. And there may not always be time for a lab test. You don't want to miss out on a good opportunity. But you also don't want to get burned by buying bad material. We'll go over some tests that you can do to ensure you're buying high quality fresh material that hasn't already been processed. After you've sourced your biomass, it's time to prepare it for extraction. The first step in the preparation process is either milling, shredding or grinding your material. It's just not efficient to extract from biomass that hasn't been appropriately broken up. There's no magic spec when it comes to mill size and your decisions here should be based on variables specific to your extraction operation. And Episode Two, we'll go over how to determine your ideal mill size based on variables unique to you, such as your evaporation capacity, your cost of ethanol, because the biomass, your access to biomass, and the amount of demand there is for your finished goods. Once you determine what your mill size will be, there are a lot of options out there to mill grind or shred your material down to spec. After trying way too many options. I landed on Futurola shredders to do the job right. On next week's show we will have Bri Tolp from Futurola as a guest to discuss how Futurola shredders will get you to your desired mill size better than the competition. After your material has been milled down, it's time to bag it up for extraction. Most centrifuge manufacturers sell specially constructed nylon bags that zip shut and fit their centrifuges perfectly. Once filled, the bags of biomass should be held at...

The Modern Extractor is a podcast focused on the processes, equipment, and science found inside a cannabis extraction laboratory. In season one, host Jason Showard takes you on an in-depth journey through the process of ethanol extraction and distillation of cannabis. Episodes are released in an order which follows the work flow of material through a lab.  Each episode digs deep into a particular stage of that work flow and discusses the pros and cons various processes, equipment, and SOPs with industry expert guests. Join us every tuesday for new episodes.