Extraction can only dissolve out compounds from the plant regardless composition contents. Extraction method such as CO2 extraction can perform supercritical and subcritical to differentiate lighter molecules from heavier molecules, but so far that’s the limit. If you need purer and isolated materials, distillation is the solution. Distillation in general is a separation technology that utilize the principle of difference in material boiling points. In conclusion, distillation is the solution if you want to increase the purity of extracted materials.

Extraction dissolves out majority of the components such as cannabinoids, terpenoids, flavonoids, plant wax and many others. To separate desired result components from the extracts, distillation needs to be performed. After distillation, highly pure and isolated distillate can be obtained.

Not necessarily, even though some people are adding solvent to “thinning” the extract because they want flow faster smoother, we typically do not recommend that route. Cannabis extracts are viscous and thick by natural; however, it still maintains some degree of flow characteristics especially when precisely controlled heat is adding. When cannabis extract is warm, it flows no problem. Therefore, we do not recommend to use any thinning agents to complicate the process which could also bring possible contaminations.

To get a thorough understanding, please refer to our post “The definitive guide to cannabis distillation”.

In short, we simplified the answer as following:

1. Molecular distillation and short-path distillation is the same thing, both utilize the principle of pressure(vacuum), heat , evaporation and condensation to separate material with different thermodynamic properties, typically boiling point in this case for cannabis plant materials.
2. Short Path is generally referring to the distance between the condensate of lower boiling point material and higher boiling point components when they evaporate and get separated in the separation column. The distance needs to be controlled precisely in order to perform distillation process. Since the distance is often very close, it got called short path distillation. Wipe film distillation is one kind of short path distillation with improved efficiency contributed by the “wiping blade”.
3. Molecular stills/columns are not fractional stills. Fractional still equipment utilize a different mechanism to complete material separation. Common fractional still are spinning band distillation and packed column distillation. Fractional stills forces vapors to go thru the fractional column and pass thru a couple of “theoretical plates” for material separation. HumBay also manufactures fractional still if you are interested. However, we high recommend to perform molecular distillation for cannabis plant materials.

In the wiped film/thin film distillation systems, there are normally two and more passes. The first pass is to remove residual mixture of air, gas, water, solvents and lighter molecules like terpenes remain in the crude. Next the second pass is performed under greater vacuum and temperature to separate cannabinoids from heavier residues like chlorophyll, plant waxes, sugars, pesticides and many other unwanted subjects. Two and more passes are necessary to ensure better separation between desired end products and unwanted matters.

It is not necessary to have a ultra-high vacuum level during distillation process because the thermodynamic properties of cannabinoids physically do not require high vacuum level to be separated. Lots of the distillation system on the market claims that their distillation process is performed at a higher vacuum level and therefore differentiate their products as better equipment. Actually, it all depends on where the vacuum sensor is placed. A sensor placed near the inlet of vacuum pump will obviously display a higher number compare to the ones like HumBay TruDistillate MDS system which is placed near the column body. Sensor placed closer to the actual reaction process will produce a more accurate reading about the proces. Typical separation happens when the column body pressure is around 13 ~ 30 Pa at temperature from 130 ~ 180 °C.

Distillation is a must have process before isolation and crystallization. The heavier components in the crude such as chlorophyll, water, waxes is going to contaminate the isolation process or foul the chromatography system. Either way is really bad for the final products and increase the processing duration.

Distillation is a process of purification, which means it will eliminate the impurities and unwanted residues in the mixture. When distillating for greater concentration of CBD content, the THC content in the mixture is actually concentrated as well. Therefore, it is often seen that plant materials with less than 0.3% THC can resulted in a 10% THC concentration distillate. In such case, remediation is required if you want to lower the amount of THC concentrate in your distillate.

Yes, all glassware is made in-house by crafty glassblowing master with more than 20 years of experience. All glassware will undergo multi-stage processes and heat treatment before entering quality assurance stage to ensure best quality.