We currently run a Closed Loop Hydrocarbon System, you will see this referred to as a CLS, within our CLS we have the ability to run a variety of Hydrocarbons, referred to as HC’s.

The HC’s that we will be using to extract are, Isobutane (lighter molecule than N-Butane or blends) which is known to extract more terpenes, terpenoids and flavonoids. Terpenoids are themselves a hydrocarbon and have been known to be used as a solvent themselves, while flavonoids are phenol (form of alcohol) groups in chemistry speak.

We use a combination of multiple hydrocarbon gases to achieve our selective extraction of cannabinoid and terpene fractions. These include 70/30 butane/propane mix, an isobutane and an n butane, and finally a propane. These are all used to obtain different qualities in our extracted material. Some allow more terpenes to be retained, while others don’t pull so many plant waxes and fats, some leave behind plant coloration.

N-butane, the -N- prefix refers to normal butane and helps to distinguish itself from its isomer (same compound but having a different structure). N-butane comes in three different grades, for our purposes we use research grade, this is a 99.99% pure compound and helps with residual buildup of unknown (at this time) compounds (such as heavy metals) to build up inside of our recovery tanks.

70/30 Butane/Propane blend is the most commonly used HC solvent in our industry at this time, the combination and/or blend of these to allow for a consistent extraction of the plants essential oils while producing a considerably decent return on the terpene profile as well.

It is worth noting, like with any extraction/distillation chemistry, these compounds are being placed under extreme pulling forces through combinations of temperature and pressure. When this occurs, like with the blended mix, it is common to end up with recombinations of hydrons and carbons, which leads to the creation of other solvents such as Pentane (five carbon chain) and hexane (straight chain alkanes). This is not something that can be stopped but can be fine-tuned as well as refined from the recollection of the hydrocarbon gases, by using the correct type of molecular sieve beads than can capture these newly formed long-chain hydrocarbons.