Freeze dryers in cannabis industry

Freeze dryers in cannabis industry

Freeze dryers are invaluable tools in the cannabis industry due to their ability to preserve the quality, potency, and overall integrity of cannabis products. Here’s how freeze dryers are commonly used:

1. Preserving Flower Quality

  • Retention of Cannabinoids and Terpenes: Freeze drying cannabis flowers helps retain a higher concentration of cannabinoids and terpenes, which are responsible for the plant’s effects, aroma, and flavor. The process prevents the degradation of these compounds, which can occur with traditional drying methods.
  • Maintaining Structural Integrity: Freeze drying helps maintain the structure and appearance of the cannabis flower, preventing shrinkage and preserving its aesthetic qualities. This is particularly important for high-end flower products sold to discerning consumers.

2. Improving Shelf Life

  • Prevention of Mold and Bacteria Growth: By removing almost all moisture from the cannabis flower, freeze drying significantly reduces the risk of mold and bacteria growth, which are common issues in cannabis storage.
  • Extended Storage: Cannabis that has been freeze-dried can be stored for longer periods without losing potency or quality, making it an ideal method for both small-scale and large-scale producers.

3. Preparation for Extraction

  • Pre-extraction Processing: Freeze drying is often used as a pre-treatment step before the extraction of cannabinoids and terpenes. By freeze-drying the plant material first, producers can ensure that the extraction process is more efficient, yielding higher concentrations of desired compounds.
  • Maintaining Purity: The lack of moisture in freeze-dried cannabis reduces the likelihood of contaminants entering the extraction process, leading to purer extracts.

4. Producing Concentrates

  • Preparation for Concentrate Production: Freeze-dried cannabis is ideal for producing various concentrates, such as shatter, wax, and oils. The process helps in maintaining the potency and purity of the final product.
  • Improved Texture: For products like live resin, which relies on capturing the essence of the fresh plant, freeze drying can preserve the plant’s live profile, resulting in a more flavorful and aromatic concentrate.

5. Edibles and Infusions

  • Cannabis Edibles: Freeze-dried cannabis can be used to make edibles. The absence of moisture makes it easier to infuse the active compounds into oils, butter, and other edible mediums without compromising the texture or flavor of the final product.
  • Long-Lasting Infusions: Infusions made with freeze-dried cannabis tend to have a longer shelf life due to the stability of the freeze-dried material.

6. Cost Efficiency

  • Reduced Waste: The precision of freeze drying ensures that more of the plant material is preserved and utilized, reducing waste and increasing overall yield.
  • Energy Efficiency: While the initial investment in freeze-drying equipment can be high, the process can be more energy-efficient over time compared to other drying methods, particularly when scaled up.

7. Custom Applications

  • Custom Formulations: Freeze dryers allow for the production of customized cannabis products, where specific moisture levels or cannabinoid profiles are required, making it a versatile tool in product development.
cannabis freeze dryer
Cannabis freeze drying

Cannabis freeze drying

The Guide to Cannabis Freeze Drying with Exeat Freeze Dryers

 

What is Cannabis Freeze Drying?

Freeze-drying happens when the solvent (usually water) and/or suspension medium is crystallized at a low temperature and removed by sublimation (the direct transition from a solid state to gaseous state without melting). Technical term for this process is Lyophilization but the process itself is more known as Freeze drying.

freeze dryer

Three Stages of Freeze Drying Cannabis

Freeze drying process can be divided to three stages: freezing, sublimation drying, and desorption drying.
The freezing phase is the most important part of the freeze-drying process. Rapid freezing is critical and eliminates the formation of large ice crystals, which could deteriorate product quality. 

  • Deep-freeze:  cannabis buds freeze down to – 5°C or lower.
  • Sublimation:  during this process solid ice turns straight to water vapor, skipping the liquid phase. A vacuum pump at this phase sucks out the water vapor.
  • Desoprtion drying:  product is returned to room temp (21-26°C), taking the last bit of water content out of the buds.
freeze dried cannabis flower buds on a tray

Benefits of Freeze Drying Cannabis

 

The most important benefits of freeze drying cannabis are:

  • Retention of cannabinoids and terpenes (preserves up to 97% of cannabinoids, ensuring that the THC, CBD, and other beneficial compounds remain intact)
  • Increase in terpene content and colors (freeze drying maintains the rich aroma and flavor profiles of the cannabis)
  • Production speed/efficiency
  • Less facility space for drying 
  • No size loss in freeze dried product
  • Limiting and reducing microbial content (process prevents the growth of mold and bacteria)
  • Freeze dried product can be stored for 3-6 months (without losing its potency).

Traditional drying and curing processes typically takes 2-6 weeks or more and it does have excellents results, although the time it takes is very long. 
One of the most important benefits of freeze-dried cannabis is the increase in terpenes and cannabinoids.

Freeze-dried flower is 15% more potent than traditionaly dried flower. Low temperatures of freeze dryer helps reduce the loss of volatile terpenes and prevent the cannabinoids chemically altering, while it is effectively preserving the active ingredients of the flower.
This method is ideal for preserving the delicate trichomes and cannabinoids that give cannabis its potency and flavor.

How Exeat Freeze Dryers Optimize Cannabis Preservation

  1. Precision Control: Our machines offer precise temperature and pressure control, allowing for a customized freeze drying process tailored to the specific needs of your cannabis strains.
  2. Efficiency and Speed: Exeat freeze dryers are engineered to process cannabis quickly while maintaining the highest quality, increasing your production efficiency.
  3. Ease of Use: With user-friendly interfaces and automated systems, our freeze dryers simplify the freeze drying process, making it accessible even for those new to the technology.
  4. Durability and Reliability: Built with high-quality materials and components, Exeat freeze dryers are designed for long-term use, providing consistent results batch after batch.

Why Choose Exeat for Your Cannabis Freeze Drying Needs?

Exeat’s freeze dryer units shorten the curing process to just 24-36 hours, and are affordable and aimed at both small and large scale growers.  In our offer you can find three standard sizes of freeze dryers, while we also produce custom size units. These units preserve buds and terpene profiles better than standard curing because they don’t use heat.

Customer Support: Our team of experts is always available to provide support and guidance, ensuring you get the most out of your Exeat freeze dryer.

Innovation and Quality: We continuously innovate and improve our products, ensuring that you have access to the latest advancements in freeze drying technology.

Sustainability: Exeat freeze dryers are designed with energy efficiency in mind, helping you reduce your environmental footprint while maintaining high-quality production.

Conclusion

Cannabis freeze drying with Exeat freeze dryers is the ultimate solution for preserving the quality, potency, and flavor of your cannabis. By investing in our advanced freeze drying technology, you ensure that your product remains at its best, providing your customers with a superior cannabis experience.

Contact us to learn more about our freeze dryers and how they can benefit your business.

 

Safety First: Operating Your Vacuum Impregnation Machine API 3.0

Safety First: Operating Your Vacuum Impregnation Machine API 3.0

Machinery safety guide for operating  API 3.0

Introduction

This safety guide is crafted for purchasers and operators of our cutting-edge Vacuum Impregnation Machine API 3.0.
Utilizing butane as a solvent, this machine demands safety protocols due to the nature of butane. 

 

butane molecule

Butane

Butane is highly flammable, colorless, and odorless gas. Because of this safety at working with butane is very important. Butane can be one of the safest fuels to work with when safety practices are used.

While this guide provides critical insights, it is important to complement it with the comprehensive A.P.I. 3.0 instruction manual and adhere to state and local regulations and the ATEX directive 2014/34/EU.

 

Closed Loop Concept of Vacuum Impregnation Machine

A.P.I. 3.0 operates on a closed-loop concept, »loop« indicating the system’s recovery and reuse of the solvent.

The solvent initiates the cycle within a vessel, flows through another with botanical material, and ultimately returns to the original vessel, forming a continuous “loop.”

While this system minimizes environmental impact, a slight butane release during normal operation emphasizes the need for strict safety adherence to prevent any potential accidents.

 

Summary of Safety Requirements

Work place requirements

  • Fire extinguisher 
  • Ventilation. It is mandatory to ensure natural or mechaical ventilation. Ventilation must be done with explosion proof equipment, with regard to ensuring needed fresh air supply, placement of the inlet and outlet canales, releasing of the outlet flow in the environment. Fotka
  • All the source of potential ignition must be located outside of hazard area. That should be located outside potential explosive atmosphere, placed from the ground to prevent exposing to butane. Butane is much heavier as air so in case of the presence it will be on the bottom.
  • Butane detector alerts if there is a presence of butane gas. Butane is a colorless, and odorless gas. This makes is impossible to detect without butane detector.
    Detector must be suitable for industrial use in explosion proof protection.
    Depending on the installation the gas detector will alert about the presence of butane gas. Machine operator can then respond in time and accordingly to the safety measurements.
  • Protection against static electricity discharge. In case there is a static electricity discharge, this can cause a spark that can have sufficient energy to ignite the explosion atmosphere. To prevent static discharge all the equipment must be grounded including the flooring. Personal protection equipment like shoes and clothing should be anti.static.
  • Working place where it could come to an explosive atmosphere has to be marked with EX mark. 
Exeat API-9672 fire extinguisher
Exeat API-9638 ventilation
ex sign
exeat ventilation system

In case of a presence of butane the operator will get visual and audio alarm when Exeat ventilation system is installed. Besides that  the detector will trigger ventilator and in case of dangerous concentrations of gas all the electrical consumers will be disconeted. Leaving only ventilator work on 100%, full capcity.   

Besides that, a presence of only authorized personnel should be ensured. They should not work with open fire, smoke or use tools that overheat or generate sparks.

Flammable chemicals and cleaning agents can be in working place only during cleaning and not while potential explosion atmosphere cold occur (e.g. operating the machine). After use the chemicals and agents must be removed from the hazard area and properly stored. 

Operational requirements

Do not mix butane and air, mixing butane gas and air could lead to dangerous situation.
Prior to operating the machine, the air should be evacuated from tanks for butane gas.
And after the evacuation of air, it has to be ensured that the system is tightly sealed. Leakage test should be performed regularly.

According to the instruction manual it is mandatory to make regularly vacuum and over pressure leakage test of the system.
With vacuum and overpressure leakage test all the leaking spots can be detected.
While machine operating a leakage of the joints or seals can occur.
To minimize the possibility of leakage a totally tight systems should be ensured and tested. Besides overpressure leakage test, the accuracy of the manometers and safety valves is tested.
The leakage test will detect if the manometers and safety valves are malfunctioning (damaged or blocked).

It is prohibited to work with the equipment which is not fully functional.

Butane and other solvents

Do not use other solvent than butane or solvents that are not approved by the manufacturer.
Other solvents have different vapor pressure compared to butane. This could lead to the opening of safety pressure valves, damaging the pressure vessels or damaging the seals due to the chemical compatibility and incompatibility.

 

We have gathered some of the safety guides that ensure safe operation of our vacuum impregnation machine A.P.I 3.0.
As stressed at the beginning, to use our machine safely, instruction manual should be followed besides your state laws and the ATEX directive 2014/34/EU.