YC-010 Extraction Equipment

Extraction Equipment: The Complete Buying Guide

There are many kinds of extraction equipment, yet we provide you with multi-functional extraction equipment which combines extraction, low-temperature vacuum, concentration, recycling of non-volatile aromatic oil and other functions.

Pilotech YC-010 Extraction Equipment includes hot reflux extraction, percolation extraction, low-temperature vacuum extraction, and low-temperature vacuum concentration.

Our YC-010 extraction tanks consist of extraction tank, concentration tank, condenser, oil water separator and filter. The parts in contact with the material are made of SUS304 stainless steel. If necessary, you can also choose SUS316 stainless steel.

We have built-in electric heaters in the extraction tank. You don’t need to prepare the boiler for heating. The heating method is jacket heating. It can be heated with jacket water or jacketed with heat transfer oil. We use Omron temperature controller to ensure an accurate temperature control.

Pilotech YC-010 Extraction Equipment uses our own water ring vacuum pump with very low noise. In general, people using laboratory vacuum pumps are worried about their loud noises. Our patented technology overcomes this problem. Moreover, our vacuum pumps work for a very short time and do not adversely affect the environment in the laboratory.

Our YC-010 extraction equipment has specifications of 5L, 10L, 20L, 50L, 100L and 200L. The standard equipment of 10L has one tank integrating the extraction tank and the concentration. For machines with other specifications, the extraction tank and the concentration tank are separate, but it can also be set according to your needs. Every machine can be made to share one tank or two tanks.

The time for extraction in this machine is very short. Different materials may take different times, ranging from 30min to 1 hour. And thermal efficiency is very high.

For your convenience, we have made a video for you to learn every step. So don’t worry about learning to use our extraction equipment.

If you want get more information about YC-010 Extraction Equipment, contact our engineer now.

Extraction Equipment: The Ultimate FAQ Guide

If you’re looking for any information about extraction equipment, you have probably come to the right place.

Because this guide covers everything you need to know about various extraction equipment.

Keep reading to learn more.

What Is Extraction Equipment?

Plant extraction equipment

A piece of extraction equipment is an industrial machine designed to separate a specific substance from its matrix.

Primarily, extraction equipment uses solvents to perform the separation. However, there is also non-solvent extraction equipment such as centrifugal extraction machines.

After the extraction, the equipment performs other functions – such as distillation – to further refine the extracted product.

Generally, extraction equipment is multi-staged to attain pure components. The significant stages are heating, cooling, and extraction.

What Are The Major Types Of Extraction Equipment?

There are various types of extraction equipment designed to separate different products.

Discussed below are the major extraction equipment we offer.

• Coffee extraction machine – Used in extracting active substances in coffee such as caffeine; and at the same time recovering volatile perfume oil.
• Herb extraction machine – Used mainly in the pharmaceutical industry to rapidly extract active compounds from herbs or medicinal plants.
• Tea extraction machine – Used in extracting beneficial ingredients in tea such as tea polyphenol and other natural products.
• Cannabis oil extraction machine – This machine is designed to extract the essential cannabis components, CBD and THC.
• Perfume extraction equipment – It is used to extract aroma compounds from materials such as white orchid, rose, jasmine, acacia, violet, carnation, daffodil, gorse, etc.
• Plant Oil extraction machine – It extracts oil from the plant parts with high oil concentration like the foliage, flower, or seeds (in the case of sunflower).

Note: Most of these machines are not designed to extract only a single product. You can use a simple tweak, for example, a tea extraction machine, to extract herbal medicine from a matrix.

Which Industries Use Extraction Equipment?

Use of extraction equipment cuts across all the major industries. The reason being, industries need specific products from whole material.

Examples of industries that heavily employ extraction equipment include:

• Food and beverage industries
• Pharmaceutical industries (including the antibiotic industry)
• Chemical industries
• Manufacturing industries (that use specific plant ingredients)

Why Should You Invest In An Extraction Equipment?

Outlined below are the multiple reasons investing in a piece of extraction equipment would be worthwhile.

• Fast extraction – Extraction equipment is designed to extract the required components within the shortest possible time rapidly.
• Automation – The automation of most extraction equipment reduces the labor burden and shortens the time required for extraction. Also, the machine can operate overnight provided it is well programmed.
• Pure final products – Although the purity may not be 100 percent, the machines guarantee more pure final products depending on the extraction method.
• Retention of volatile components – Extraction equipment meticulously ensures that the essential volatile elements are not eliminated from the extract.
• Low operating costs – With automation, it is relatively cheap to operate a piece of extraction equipment. They are also relatively energy efficient.
• Parameter controls – The fact that you can adjust the various equipment parameters allows you to use various solvents for your extraction process.
• Customization – We can customize extraction equipment to meet your needs. This allows for increased efficiency of specific extraction equipment.

Tea extraction equipment

How Does Various Extraction Equipment Work?

The working principle of various extraction equipment may vary depending on:

• Extraction method
• Matrix from which components are being extracted
• The technology employed in the machine

In this case, we will consider extraction methods which are majorly two – solvent and non-solvent.

Working Of Solvent Based Extraction Equipment

A piece of solvent-based extraction equipment uses solvents such as CO₂, alcohol/ethanol, and hydrocarbons like butane/propane.

These machines operate using the below general steps:

1. First, the raw material or matrix is soaked in the solvent. For maximum extraction, the material is first grounded.
2. The resulting solution, made up of the solvent and the components meant to be extracted, is then evaporated using heat and vacuum. The resulting substance from this step is a crude extract.
3. Finally, the crude extract can either be distilled or is further refined to create a purified final extract.

All the solvent-based extraction equipment is designed to accommodate all of the above procedures.

However, some may lack parts to carry out steps (iii). In such a scenario, other machines can be attached to a solvent-based extraction to ensure it performs all the above three steps.

Working Of Non-Solvent Based Extraction Equipment

As the name suggests, these equipment do not use any solvent in the extraction process.

Technically, this equipment does not extract but instead ‘mechanically separate’ the desired compounds.

The needed compounds are acquired from the matrix or the raw material through the application of physical force.

The primary non-solvent extraction methods include; cold press, ice press, and screening.

Regardless of the non-solvent extraction method, the machines follow the below basic steps:

1. First, the matrix or material is inserted in a mesh or screen bag.
2. It is then passed on to a heat press
3. The contents are then literally squeezed out of the biomass and collected

What Are The Key Considerations Before Purchasing Extraction Equipment?

Before settling on a piece of specific extraction equipment to buy, you should have the below considerations:

Legal Aspect

The legal aspect is multi-faceted. First, consider if the product you intend to extract is prohibited or authorized, for example, in cannabis oil extraction.

Second, the facility to harbor the extraction equipment should be compliant with the structural laws of the specific country.

Lastly, the extraction equipment should have all the legal requirements stipulated by the local authority.

Desired End Product

Some extraction equipment leaves impurities in the final product. On the other hand, other extraction machines ensure a completely pure final product.

Your choice will depend on whether traces of impurity are significant or are negligible.

Extraction Method

Usually, most extraction machines are either solvent-based or non-solvent-based. You may prefer one extraction method to another.

As such, ensure you know the extraction method employed by an extracting machine. Also, the extraction method should be suitable for extracting the compounds you require.

Market Niche

Understanding the market, you intend to operate in will guide your choice of extraction equipment. A largely populated market will require that you purchase a piece of extraction equipment with high output. The vice-versa is true.

Certifications

Purchasing a piece of equipment with the required certifications will guarantee that you and your staff are safe when operating the machine.

Also, certified extraction equipment adheres to international standards thus has a long life span.

What Features Should Ideal Extraction Equipment Have?

Various extraction equipment has features that make them stand out. However, certain features are common and desirable in all extraction equipment. They include:

• Scalability – The size or scale of extraction equipment should be easily adjustable.
• Automation – An automatic extraction equipment will improve the machine’s efficiency by increasing output and reducing the extraction time.
• Capacity – Despite a piece of extraction equipment being scalable, the initial capacity ought to be reasonably large to increase the throughput.
• Control panel – An extraction equipment should have an easy-to-operate control panel to adjust the parameters for extraction easily
• Stainless steel body – Since extraction is primarily done in the food and pharmaceutical industries, the body should be made from stainless steel. Stainless steel is easy to clean and is neither contaminated nor corroded easily.

Which Are The Key Extraction Methods?

Extraction equipment uses two extraction methods, solvent-based extraction, and non-solvent-based extraction.

Solvent-based Extraction

The major solvents used in the extraction process include ethanol (alcohol), hydrocarbons (propane/butane), CO_2, and edible oils.

The solvent is mixed with the biomass, consequently dissolving the required compounds. The resulting solution is then evaporated, leaving behind the crude extract, which can be subjected to further processing.

Non-solvent Based Extraction

Non-solvent-based extraction involves using physical force to get your extract. First, the matrix or biomass is grounded to increase its surface area.

Force is then exerted on the materials, literally squeezing out the required compounds.

What is CO2 Supercritical Extraction?

The supercritical state is when a molecule has both liquid and gas properties. In this case, CO₂ is used as a solvent in its supercritical state to extract plant components.

Carbon dioxide attains its supercritical state at a pressure of 1071psi and a temperature of 31.1^oC.

Notably, the supercritical properties of carbon dioxide can be manipulated, allowing it to bond with any molecule you are interested in extracting.

Also, CO₂ supercritical extraction guarantees you a clean, pure, and safe product; if applied accordingly.

How Does CO₂ Extraction Compare To Ethanol Extraction?

Despite both carbon dioxide and ethanol being used as solvents in extraction, they differ significantly.

First and foremost, carbon dioxide is an inert gas solvent, while ethanol is a liquid solvent.

Second, ethanol has a higher throughput than carbon dioxide. Also, it is more suitable for making isolates and distillates at scale.

Unlike ethanol, CO₂ is not volatile; hence using it during extraction does not require a control zone.

Regarding operating conditions, carbon dioxide operates under varying temperatures and high-pressure conditions.

Additionally, food-grade ethanol is relatively expensive. Consequently, you need to recover the used ethanol and reuse it.

On the other hand, CO₂ is reasonably cheap, plus it is automatically recycled in the extraction process.

Also, raw ethanol extract is regarded as hazardous waste. Conversely, CO₂ plain extract is considered safe and can be converted to food-grade amino acids.

Lastly, compared to raw ethanol extracts, CO₂ raw extracts require a reasonable amount of processing to remove waxes, lipids, and fats.

Herb extraction machine

What Are The Main Parts Of Extraction Equipment?

The parts of extraction equipment will vary depending on the extraction method used by the machine.

However, there are some common parts most extraction machines have.

These include:

Flow diagram for solvent extraction

• Automatic screen monitoring – This is useful in real-time monitoring of the equipment’s operation. The screen monitor can be touch-enabled to make it more user-friendly.
• Case covers – The case covers can be air-filled to tightly cover the cylinder after you have placed the plant material inside the extractor.
• Combined cylinder system – This is a series of interconnected cylinders. Their main role is to increase the surface area for the extraction process.
• Reactors – These are high-pressure vessels where the extraction occurs.
• Heat exchanger – The heat exchanger provides heat for the extraction process. It can also facilitate the evaporation process of the raw extract.

Note: Other parts will depend on the type of solvent being used; for example, a piece of CO₂ extraction equipment will have a CO₂ gas booster, CO₂ pumps, and CO₂ cylinder system.

Importantly, the less complex nature of non-solvent-based extraction equipment makes them have fewer parts compared to solvent-based extraction equipment.

What Ancillary Equipment Can You Use With Extraction Equipment?

Ancillary equipment will differ depending on the extraction method employed. For example, if the equipment is using ethanol for the extraction, you will need a:

• Walk-in freezer
• Filter skid – For filtering the ethanol solution between extractions
• Rotary evaporator – This will aid in both evaporation and decarboxylation.

On the other hand, if your equipment is using CO_2, you will need a:

• Rotary evaporator
• Centrifuge

Why Are Most Of Your Extraction Equipment Batch And Not Continuous?

The main reason for this is to ensure that the extraction process does not halt when one machine fails.

For example, you can still continue with evaporation and distillation when the extractor breaks down as you fix the extractor.

Also, it is easier to isolate and fix any machine that is not functional.

How Much Does CO₂ Extraction Equipment cost?

You can opt to buy or outsource a piece of CO₂ extraction equipment. If you choose to buy the CO₂ extraction equipment, it will cost you any figure between $135,000 and $150,000.

If you also need to purchase ancillary equipment such as the centrifuge and rotary evaporator, the price range will be within $20,000 to $35,000.

On the other hand, outsourcing is a way cheaper alternative.

However, the catch is that you will need to have a split (usually 50/50) of the extract with the actual owner of the equipment.

Importantly, you will still provide the raw material or biomass from which the components are required in outsourcing.

What Necessary Certifications Should You Look For When Purchasing Extraction Equipment?

Small cannabis oil extractor

Certifications are important in ensuring the safety of the equipment and the safety of your facility and your staff.

Below are the essential certifications a piece of extraction equipment should have:

• ASME Certification
• CE Marking
• ISO 9001:2015 Certification
• C1D1 compliance
• UL Certification

What Quality Standards Should An Extraction Equipment Comply With?

Depending on the industry the extraction equipment is being used, the quality standards may vary insignificantly.  However, some important quality standards you should look out for include:

• ISO 9001 standards on Quality Management Systems
• BS EN Standards on Safety of machinery
• CE marking that shows that the electrical parts of the machine meet the EU standards.
• UL marking indicates the equipment has undergone testing on energy efficiency and functional safety.

What Are Some Important Considerations To Make When Setting Up An Extraction Lab?

There are three important considerations you should have in mind when setting up your extraction lab.

Legislations

Legislations are put in place to ensure the safety of those in and around the extraction lab. You must comply with your local authority requirements in setting up an extraction lab.

Not only will this ensure the safety of your staff and those around the extraction lab, but it will also save you extra costs. Costs that will arise from restructuring your lab to conform to the legislated standards.

Solvent Storage

Also, there are legislations on what amount of solvent or extract you can store in an extraction lab at a time. Ensure your extraction lab has the maximum storage capacity so that you can maximize your extraction output.

Solvent And Biomass

For example, using ethanol as a solvent will require that your lab has a control zone. Also, you will need to construct a complex hazard infrastructure since ethanol extracts are regarded as hazardous.

What Are The Post-extraction Practices That Improve The Value Of The Final Product?

Post-extraction practices are aimed at further refining the raw extract. Below are the significant post-extraction practices.

Filtration

Filtration can take two forms, adsorbent filtration or winterization. Winterization involves first solidifying the unwanted components before filtering the solution.

On the other hand, adsorbent filtration majorly removes the suspended particulate/adsorbent using a filtration skid

Evaporation

Similar to filtration, evaporation is also done in significant ways; rotary evaporation and falling film evaporation. Generally, rotary evaporation removes the solvent through a rotating temperature-controlled vessel and under a vacuum condition.

Falling film evaporation (FFE) functions the same way as rotary evaporation. However, it is faster even though a FFE system is small in size compared to a rotary evaporator.

Decarboxylation

Decarboxylation is a post-extraction practice majorly carried out in cannabis oil extraction. It is helpful in converting the extracted components from acidic to non-acidic (neutral) concentrations.

Usually, the components are heated to a temperature that results in the removal of the carboxyl group.

Distillation

Distillation results to about 99 percent purity of the extract. It is done under pre-determined temperature and pressure conditions that allow only the collection of the desired components.

Which Are The Recent Scientific And Technological Advancement In The Extraction Industry?

Every industry is characterized by positive technological advancement. The extraction industry is no exception. Below are some of the recent advances in the extraction industry.

Sound Wave (Sonic) Extraction

Sonic or ultra-sonic extraction entails using sound waves to carry out extraction. This is made possible by alternated emission of low and high –pressure (approximately 20,000 cycles every second).

Sonication has advantages such as:

• Its non-thermal nature makes it safe
• Cheaper compared to us of solvents
• Easy to scale and replicate, ensuring consistency in the end-product
• It is clean, natural, and energy-efficient

Organic Solvent Nanofiltration (OSN)

Organic Solvent Nanofiltration cooperates with a number of filtration steps to purify and concentrate the extract. What is more, OSN combines various stages into one, i.e., winterization, filtration, evaporation, and decolorization.

Use Of Microwaves In Extraction

Microwaves are used in extraction to enable focused heating while retaining the profile of the matrix or biomass. Nonetheless, microwaves operate continuously at atmospheric pressure.

Remarkably, Microwave Applied Extraction (MAE) has the capability of attaining 95 percent component extract.

Also, MAE eliminates some post-extraction practices such as winterization and decarboxylation.

Why Do You Need Multi-Functional Solvent Extraction Equipment?

Multi-functional extraction equipment

They combine the following features

Hot Reflux Extraction

This process entails heating the solution for some time as you continually cool the vapour with a condenser back to liquid form.

However, you cannot use this process to extract thermolabile natural products.

Percolation Extraction

This method entails a continuous process where you constantly replace saturated solvent with a fresh solvent when extracting.

Low-temperature Vacuum Extraction

The machine can extract ingredients at low temperatures which makes it suitable for heat-sensitive products.

Recycling Of Non-volatile Aromatic Oil

This allows you to reuse the oil over again making the solvent consumption levels to be low.

Fully Automatic

These machines use a feeding system that is fully automatic, thereby requiring no manual labor.

Wide Application

These machines can extract various types of oils that do not contain solid particles.

Also, you can use them for research and development purposes.

No Pollution

These machines will recycle products thereby encountering no wastage of gas, sludge, or wastewater.

Cost Effective

This machine combines both extraction and concentration tanks thereby you only need to purchase one equipment.

Low-temperature Vacuum Concentration

This process involves lowering the boiling point of solvents to make the liquid vaporize thereby maintaining the integrity of the materials.

Also, at these low temperatures, this method is suitable for heat-sensitive materials.

Is There Difference Between Extraction Tank And Concentration Tank?

Concentration tanks are devices that is suitable for concentrating various types of samples.

These tanks can also evaporate, heat, and purify volatile substances.

Extraction tanks are equipment that you will use to remove the active ingredient from materials before concentrating.

Which Safety Features Should Solvent Extraction Equipment Have?

These include:

• The material construction of the machine should be thick stainless steel that complies with GMP standards
• Also, it should have an explosion –proof motor and explosion-proof electrical cabinets

How Does Mixer-settler Compare To Pulse Column?

A mixer-settlers are agitated devices that have blades or impellers and acts as a settler once you stop the agitation process in batch processes.

Pulse columns uses reciprocating pumps to form short amplitude pulses that superimpose on the normal phase of liquid flow.

Low axial mixing and an increase of the column diameter that minimally increases axial mixing are some unique features of pulse columns.

Pulse columns are suitable for processing corrosive radioactive liquids as they contain no moving parts.

How Does Gravity Column Compare to Centrifugal Extractor?

Centrifugal extractors use centrifugal force to increase phase separation and lower residence time.

Also, centrifugal extractors are costly to make and need more maintenance.

Centrifugal extractors are suitable in applications that need a short contact time, for instance, extraction of antibiotics.

Gravity columns operate by introducing liquid at the bottom part of the extractor which evolve as tiny droplets on nozzle distributors.

Light droplets will ascend in the heavy mass of liquid which will flow downwards as continuous streams.

What Is Mechanically Agitated Column?

These are devices that have mechanical devices which agitate liquids when they pass through these columns.

These columns assist in enhancing new droplet formation, increase interfacial turbulence which result in more efficiency.

The two classes of mechanically agitated columns include:

• Rotary agitated columns
• Pulse column extractor

At Pilotech, we will help you get highly efficient extraction equipment for your unique material processing needs.

Contact us today for all your extraction equipment from China.