Cleaning Up Cannabis Extraction – Obstacles Facing the Cannabis Industry and How We Can Together Overcome Them

Cannabis.net recently sat down with Albert Iannantuono, CEO of ExtractX, to discuss the latest innovations in the cannabis extraction industry.

Tell us a little bit about what’s going on in the extraction industry today.

The industry is booming right now. We are experiencing a global revolution – where people are placing great emphasis on pharma-based CBD and THC products. Mainstream populations around the world are starting to appreciate the benefits and beneficial health effects of CBD, THC, and other cannabinoids.

This has led to innovation and healthy competition in the world of hemp and cannabis, with new players constantly emerging in the cultivation, product formulation, extraction and other supporting industries. It has never been so exciting to be in the cannabis and hemp industry.

What are the current opportunities and barriers for the hemp and cannabis extraction industry?

The root of all opportunities in this industry is mainstream acceptance of cannabis products as a wave of regulatory changes sweeps the world. The use of these products is becoming common practice for all types of consumers, and demand requires us to innovate towards new and improved products.

One of the biggest obstacles facing the entire industry is simply how new it is and how the true effects of the cannabis plant are re-enlightened. In many countries, most of these products were only legalized a few years ago, and many more jurisdictions are still in the process of legalizing hemp and cannabis use, whether for medicinal or recreational purposes only.

The market in Thailand is a perfect example. The demand for legal medical grade CBD products is growing rapidly, but there is a lack of experts in extraction, cultivation, etc. We were able to assist our partner in installing a laboratory that meets the regulatory requirements of the Thai FDA.

While it’s definitely an opportunity, I consider the rapidly increasing demand for CBD and THC products to be an obstacle as well, especially when considering the environmental impact of the cannabis extraction process as certain processes contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Why did you decide to enter the cannabis extraction industry and seize this global opportunity?

I’ve been in the industry for a while, but it wasn’t until my father told me he was using CBD products to treat a chronic injury that I realized how important these sweeping regulatory changes are going to be to the world. Since I was based in Canada, I had the chance to try these CBD products for myself when I was coping with an injury too, and after doing an informal survey of some friends and family, I found that a pretty high one Percentage of them tried cannabis products and experienced real benefits from them.

These experiences helped me immediately see the value and potential of our ExtractX mobile laboratory technology, especially given the advances in medical and recreational product legalization in the US and around the world.

Why do you see the increasing global demand for CBD and THC products as an obstacle to the extraction industry?

People from all kinds of backgrounds are flocking to this new industry, and not all of their motivations are the same. I think the sheer amount of money on the table is an obstacle to the industry as regulators are still finding ways to properly address issues like quality control, labeling compliance, production efficiency, environmental regulations, etc. We come from a more mature market in Canada and we feel like we are exporting our know-how all over the world. The more the demand increases, the greater the pressure to meet that demand, and we all need to focus on getting it right and helping our partners avoid short-term pitfalls and pitfalls. Our aim is to build long-term and sustainable partnerships.

Which extraction method is the most environmentally conscious?

There are several ways to extract CBD and THC distillate from hemp or cannabis biomass. The process, technology and equipment differ depending on the solvent used. Butane (BHO), supercritical CO2, and ethanol are commonly used solvents. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, especially depending on the volume of production in that particular laboratory.

For several reasons, we decided to use a closed-loop ethanol extraction process in our mobile extraction laboratories. The first is that it supported our goal of creating a compact, modular laboratory that is completely mobile and can be fully built into a partner’s facility. The second is that we’ve found it to be a much more environmentally conscious method. Compared to the supercritical CO2 process, for example, ethanol extraction is much more environmentally friendly, as the ethanol can be recovered and reused over several batches. The CO2 method pumps the spent carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere and requires 6-10 extractors to achieve the same production capacity as 1 ethanol extractor, making it much less efficient than alternative methods in our application that emit CO2 in the process.

Visit ExtractX for a sneak peek into one of their cannabis extraction laboratories.

What’s next for ExtractX?

Our goal is to continue to bring our know-how and experience in the construction of highly efficient and compact extraction laboratories to the industry. Our team understands that we are all involved and that we as an industry must work together to further improve both the products and our processes for developing those products. We have a unique opportunity to help many people – to simplify the laboratory building for cultivators and product formulators, to extract the highest quality distillate which leads to better consumer products, and to continuously improve the efficiency of our laboratories for the good of the environment. We firmly believe that strong partnerships are the future of the cannabis and hemp industries.

Thanks very much!

Check out ExtractX, click here!

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