In today’s botanical industry, the conventional flower product is no longer the key driver of demand. There is still a market for the other parts of the plant, but many modern-day consumers prefer extractors to prepare extracts/concentrates in the form of topicals, edibles, tinctures, and other forms of consumption.
Compared to the conventional flower product, these goods offer a significantly more potent product—extracts, for example, can include a proportion of somewhere between 90 and 99 percent pure, as compared to the 15 to 20 percent found in the traditional product. In order to produce these high-potency products, the plant material must be distilled to extract highly concentrated oils from the plant, a process known as distillation. Adding a vacuum chamber and pump to the distillation process can help reduce headaches, save time, and prevent costly mistakes in the production of extracts.
Extraction Using a Vacuum Pump
Vacuum is employed in the manufacture of both plant extract and flower extract oils in two ways:
- Elimination of extraction ethanol
- Cleaning and decanting
Wax and other plant components are often separated from the plant materials using ethanol (other solvent options include butane).
Because no one wants solvents in their oils, a Rotary vane pump with a two-stage, oil-sealed seal, a solvent-free extract is a goal. Because of this, the ethanol used in the extraction process must be eliminated. At a pressure of 1 atmosphere, ethanol burns out at a temperature of 78 degrees Celsius (172.4 degrees Fahrenheit). However, the boiling point of ethanol may be decreased to 12.8 C (55 F) if a vacuum can be pulled deeper than 28.5 inches Hg gauge (HGV).
The lower the boiling point maybe, on average, the larger the vacuum depth. With greater boiling points, extracts were able to withstand the evaporation process without using any of the solvents previously used.
The boiling point can be lowered by creating a vacuum, in other words. In addition to lowering the boiling point, the removal of oxygen from the product eliminates oxidation.
Other Applications for Vacuum Pumps
Vacuum chambers and pumps are common devices used in drying plant material to remove water and other solvents without scorching the product. Before the true process begins, heating can burn or evaporate part of the ingredients. These applications are commonly served by liquid ring pumps and claw pumps.
Fractionate crystallization or winterization is frequently required for further purification. It is necessary to cool down the distillation result in order to precipitate a few of its individual elements. Vacuum is commonly used to speed up the process of removing them. Since higher vacuum levels aren’t necessary, liquid ring pumps and claw pumps are frequently employed.