Mild Extraction for Premium CBD Oil

The way that cannabinoids are extracted from the plant has great influence on the quality of the CBD oil that is made with it. Our patent protected process is a one-step, low pressure, low temperature extraction process: we charge the biomass, push a button and harvest the extract. No further downstream processing of any sort is needed. Commonly used extraction processes make use carbon dioxide (CO2) or ethanol as solvent. There are manufacturers in the USA that make use of butanol or propanol, but we do not see this in Europe.

Carbon dioxide is a supercritical fluid (SCF) when subjected to pressure and temperature of above 73.9bar and 31.1oC respectively. It exhibits the density of a liquid, viscosity and diffusibility of a gas. It is effective as an extraction solvent only at pressures substantially higher than 150bar. In common with other solvents, mass transfer occurs when SC fluid is brought into contact with a botanical material.

Serious drawbacks associated with supercritical CO2 are:

a)     Very high operating pressures mean high process costs.

b)     The high extraction pressures result in poorselectivity leading to extraction of many unwanted molecules including waxes and chlorophyll. This makes it necessary to carry out downstream purification steps and introduction of unwanted solvents such as ethanol.

c)     SC CO2 is acidic and causes, degradation of the fragile mono and di-terpenes leading to poor taste, aroma and colour.

A process by which mass transfer is achieved by contacting the biomass with ethanol. Thespent biomass residues are removed by filtration and a clarified ethanolic solution is obtained. The alcohol is then removed by vacuum evaporation at elevated temperatures. This process has the following drawbacks:

a)     Alcohol is non-selective, many undesired compounds, including waxes and chlorophyll, are co-extracted necessitating the need for further processing steps.

b)     Elevated evaporation temperatures cause degradation ofthe fragile aromatic terpenes causing poor taste and aroma.

c)     Most of the desired volatile aromatic molecules areco-evaporated with the ethanol.

d)     Solvent evaporation is both expensive and presents afire hazard.

The above listed drawbacks result in extracts that have poor colour, taste and aroma and lack the volatile molecules needed for the Entourage Effect.

Our unique process uses a range of solvents known as Phytosols. The solvent system, process methodology and critical parameters including: solvent/ biomass ratios, contact times, temperature and pressure are precisely controlled to give a bespoke method so that optimum extraction yield and chemical composition of the products are routinely obtained by design. Our process has the following advantages:

a)     The solvent system is non-toxic, non-corrosive, noneflammable, inert and pH neutral.

b)     Non-detectable levels of solvent residue in the finalproducts.

c)     Efficient and highly selective- no waxes or unwanted polyphenolsare co-extracted.

d)     No further downstream processing is needed.

e)     Chemical composition of the extract resembles very closely that of the cannabis plant.

f)      Product has superior taste, colour and aroma.

Unlike extracts obtained by other methods, Becanex products have a mild, slightly nutty and sweet taste – those are the three adjectives that describe our oil best. This phenomenon is explained by the lack of high molecular weight polyphenols, including chlorophyll, and absence of degradation molecules in our product.