Purchasing an extraction system is one of the most consequential decisions your cannabis business can make. Choosing one that doesn’t meet your output needs could lead to not being able to meet your customers’ demands, while opting for an overly complex system can unnecessarily increase your operation’s CapEx and OpEx. The system you select can make or break your business.
Going through the extraction system research process can help inform decisions, but when spending six figures or more on a piece of equipment, speaking directly with manufacturers is often the only way to get comfortable with a vendor partnership.
Here, Jason Laronde, Sales Manager at Vitalis Extraction Technology, shares some of the top questions to ask extraction equipment manufacturers as you consider your options in the space.
1. What is the system’s extraction efficiency?
One of the most important questions to ask about a piece of extraction equipment centers around output efficiency. Laronde suggests asking how effective the system is at separating active compounds (cannabinoids and terpenes) from plant biomass. “A question that will often come up when shopping for a piece of equipment is ‘How much does your machine generate, how much comes out?’”
He says that question often leads to an answer that operators don’t want to hear: “It depends.”
“No one likes to hear that because they want to build that spreadsheet that says if I buy a machine for X amount of dollars, this is how much this machine will generate for me,” he says. But the question of how much concentrate a system produces is entirely dependent on the quality of the biomass that goes into it. “The machine simply converts it from one format to another.”
Rather than asking how much oil a system can produce, Laronde suggests focusing the line of questioning on extraction efficiency: The portion of active compounds that can be separated and reclaimed from the plant biomass.
“No processing equipment is ever going to optimally or efficiently extract 100% of everything that plant has to offer,” Laronde says. “But what I can tell you is that if you run my machine properly, you realistically can get
The composition of a machine’s extract can vary widely from manufacturer to manufacturer, muddying discussions of yield as measured in volume or weight. For example, “the unique parameters that Vitalis’ dual-solvent extraction systems operate at produce a very high purity extract, requiring little refinement downstream to remove co-extracted undesirables,” Laronde says.
“Who cares if a machine can produce huge yields if a lot of it is fats and waxes that are worth nothing, or color and sugars that screw up your lab’s glassware. How much of what you want to sell can the machine extract per
When compared to a traditional monosolvent (CO2 only) extraction process, Laronde says they generally see about a 5-times improvement in time to extract; in other words, what originally took five hours, now takes one. There are additional time savings beyond operating time in post-processing, cleaning and maintenance.
Inquiring about extraction system efficiency also facilitates an apples-to-apples comparison across different systems.
2. What safety ratings and certifications does this system have?
Whether leveraging pressurized CO2, hydrocarbons, ethanol, or another solvent, the vast majority of extraction systems are required to have safety ratings and certifications before an operation can legally turn that machine on. Some may even require facility fire safety improvements.
Any extraction equipment being considered for purchase “should have proper pressure certifications,” Laronde says. “Particularly using CO2 because they often operate under pressure.” Even with co-solvent systems enabling CO2 units to operate at lower pressures, “anything over 15 PSI [pounds per square inch] is a federally regulated product.” Pressure vessel safety requirements are not cannabis-specific, and enforcement is often done by workplace safety authorities who have the power to fine and shut down a facility for running non-compliant equipment.
“If it's operating over 15 PSI and it doesn't have a stamp, that vessel is illegal,” Laronde notes. System manufacturers are
“I can't tell you how many facilities I've been in where there are no stamps on the machine at all,” Laronde shares, adding that he’s seen everything from systems
As a system manufacturer, Laronde explains Vitalis’s products are already rated by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), as well as the regulatory authorities in Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Multinational customers looking to buy equipment that can be operated in multiple jurisdictions can turn to Vitalis and know they will be able to “share recipes and SOPs [across markets] because the only thing that's changed is the safety stamps. The equipment is still designed and operated exactly the same.”
3. What automation features does this system have?
Automation can be a double-edged sword in cannabis extraction systems. On one hand, automation “allows you to remove a lot of the monotonous, tedious tasks like the cleaning or the collection processes, or the opening and closing of vessels, particularly when there are really large pieces of steel that need to move around,” Laronde explains. “Those are really good to have because they reduce the possibility of things like injury and user error when closing and sealing the machine.”
But automation can also go too far, which can lead to less-than-optimal results. “If I have a machine that follows the same recipe, but I put inconsistent input material into the machine, then I run the risk of under-extracting the product, which means I'm wasting the time, effort, and dollars that went into 12 weeks of making that biomass,” Laronde says. “Or I'm over-extracting it, which is wasting valuable machine time on what typically is a six-figure piece of equipment. So automation can actually be very costly.”
An over-reliance on automation features like remote operation over an app can also potentially land companies in hot water, as most jurisdictions legally require that an operator, trained by the manufacturer, be present at all times.
More often than not, “you have to have someone present when equipment is operating under pressure.”
Ask vendors about their automation features and determine what makes sense for your procedures.
4. What does it cost to operate?
Calculating the cost and ROI of an extraction system goes beyond the purchase price. Understanding ongoing expenses related to extraction equipment is an often forgotten part of the purchasing conversation, Laronde says.
“It's not just what I pay to buy the machine,” Laronde says. As mentioned, a team member is likely needed to supervise the extraction unit, and regulations on who can do so vary across local jurisdictions.
“The right caliber of labor is also going to be variable. If I'm in Florida, I can hire whoever I want, but if I'm in New York, I may need to hire somebody with a science degree because those are the rules,”
Buyers should inquire about system energy consumption, solvent use and recovery rates, and maintenance requirements, and “compare that against how much product you're putting in the machine and what its recovery percentage is over what unit of time. That'll allow you to take all of your cost of the goods sold and put it into how many goods you're creating to give you a cost per gram,” Laronde says.
“It’s shocking how many major players don’t know what their actual cost per gram to produce is. For a recreational extract, if the operational cost of your extraction and refinement equipment, including labor, electricity, and consumables, is more than about 8 cents per gram, you need to [reconsider your equipment and processes].”
5. Can I visit your manufacturing facility?
Laronde advises prospective equipment buyers to invite themselves over to visit the system manufacturer’s facilities, and to make such visits a condition of completing the purchase process.
“Go see your vendors,” he says. “It's okay if you invite yourself—if a vendor is not going to invite you to go and see them, invite yourself.” If the vendor refuses your request, take that as a red flag, Laronde adds.
Some system manufacturers might dazzle people with extraordinary claims and crisp marketing, but having a vendor willing to share their design and manufacturing process with you can help build trust and confidence if the visit shows that operators are doing things the right way.
With these questions, cannabis operators will be in a better position to get the important information that matters most to their operation’s success to quickly parse through the serious equipment manufacturers from the fly-by-night operations who aren’t building for the long term.
