What are the different types of Co2 kief extractions?

There are 3 main types of CO2 extraction and seperation; sub zero, subcritical and supercritical.

What is sub zero extraction?

Sub Zero temperatures are preferred when making any extraction. Particularly when CBD and THCA levels are at their highest potency which occurs in its live’ uncured state. Not only does the Resinator let us extract kief/resin glands from dried and cured cannabis or hemp flowers, but our Sub Zero extraction / separation allows us to work with live’ / uncured cannabis or hemp in a multitude of applications.

What is subcritical extraction?

Subcritical Co2 is ideal for extracting and preserving light resin glands and oils from the plant material. Subcritical (low temp, low pressure) Co2 extractions take more time and produce much smaller yields than supercritical, but they retain the essential oils, terpenes, and other sensitive chemicals within the plant.

What is supercritical extraction?

Supercritical Co2 can be a much stronger solvency power than subcritical Co2. In addition to extracting lighter oils, supercritical CO2 can extract the higher molecular weight materials (like waxes, paraffins, lipids and resins) from the plant, allowing for higher yields and a more complete extraction.

Cryo-Sieve™ - The Original Resinator

Using Co2 with The Original Resinator on DRY/CURED material has no adverse effect. Co2 is hydrophobic meaning it repels water. Co2 also displaces oxygen. These factors play a role when processing naturally cured biomass. Once removed from the Resinator the biomass will normalize within minutes. It will inherently take on the humidity from the localized environment so we should be mindful to maintain ideal operating temperatures and relative humidity levels.

CRYO-SIEVE™ WITH THE RESINATOR

CO2 Trichome Collection

We recommend that you start with a 150 to 200 micron bag (depending on strains and needs) and gradually reduce the screen size according to the gland concentration you want. Available screen sizes range from 25μm to 400μm (and even 600μm). As always, there are different types and sizes of trichomes. The morphology of these glands mainly depend on plant genetics, so we can find high quality glands of up to 150μm, and ranging as high as 500μm, and others measuring the opposite end of the spectrum even less than 50-25μm. (Even lower when using color remediation or charcoal filters with things like ethanol extraction for short path distillation.)

To obtain a clean and professional extraction, we should try to recover those glands measuring between 75μm and 100μm (but up to 125μm), which normally yield the best quality. If the screen sizes are smaller than the collected glands, than the dry sift extraction will also be smaller (the used screen size mainly depends on user preferences).

It’s only the use of liquid Co2 which allows us to work with the plant biomass in its Live’ WET/UNCURED state. This is extremely helpful for a myriad of applications. Please be mindful that when working with fresh frozen or Live’ cannabis or hemp biomass applications it is vital to “maintain the cold chain”. Once the plant has been frozen and dropped below the freeze rate of 32°F the cellular wall of the plant ruptures. This leads to oxidation and discoloration if biomass was left unattended or allowed to thaw above that same 32°F temperature point. When working with Live’ material we can use a deep freezer to suspend the biomass in a frozen state.

Not only does a deep freezer solve a problem where a bottleneck occurs when dealing with freeze dryer capacity, but it acts as a staging area as well. This allows for complete harvest of a crop while awaiting availability of technicians, freeze dryers or extraction equipment prior to processing. When properly stored under a deep freeze the cannabis or hemp will remain suspended “frozen in time” until we are ready to process, for up to a year if stored correctly. If going from a fresh frozen state to a hydrocarbon extraction, being that there is no adverse reaction with water, the biomass can be processed directly out of the deep freezer into a closed loop system for immediate extraction. When going from a fresh frozen state to a solventless application we must use a freeze dryer and the lyophilization process where we sublimate the water as opposed to traditional means of drying where evaporation is employed.

Cryo-Sieve™ with CO₂

Dry Trim / Wet Trim / CO2 / Crop2Cure

CRYO-SIEVE™ WITH THE RESINATOR

CO2 Trichome Collection

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Cryo-Sieve™ with CO2

Dry Trim / Wet Trim / CO2 / Crop2Cure

CRYO-SIEVE™ WITH THE RESINATOR

CO2 Trichome Collection

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Cryo-Sieve™ with CO₂