How do you optimize botanical freeze drying?
The Original Resinator’s Behind the Process: Crop-to-Cure
PART 1
The Problem
There is a huge demand for medical and high quality cannabis flower, but the production cycle is long and is subject to human error which can lead to a lower quality product. The Original Resinator (TOR) is a leader in research and development for optimizing post-harvest efforts by manufacturing equipment that is specifically designed for the needs of cultivators and extractors. They knew based on their research that freeze drying cannabis was a way to increase quality, reduce production time, and that fine vacuum control was necessary. Economical entry-level freeze dryers on the market do not come with the ability to do the level of vacuum control necessary to produce the best quality flower possible.
That in turn led to The Original Resinator needing a partner to create a vacuum solution that would level up the freeze dryer process, so the DigiVac partnership was born.
Solution:
DigiVac partnered with The Original Resinator for a project to optimize Lyophilization Processing Solutions for their Harvest Right freeze dryer product line. Or essentially, improve the freeze drying process itself utilizing fine vacuum control for botanical products. These packages focused on optimizing freeze drying the cannabis flower to increase both efficiency and output quality. These improvements ultimately offer a system to dry cannabis that is efficient while delivering a better product for dispensary shelves which has the added benefits of saving cultivators time and money.
Freeze drying is essentially the commercialized process of sublimation, which is the scientific process of a solid substance transitioning into a gas state, all without passing through a liquid state. The sublimation process for cannabis products is pushed even further because it goes through the additional steps of being frozen and then turned into gas. The traditional drying method for cannabis is time intensive in comparison and largely depends on how well the drying as well as the curing processes are both done under strict environmental conditions – a lot can go wrong and often does.
Curing is the preservation and drying process cannabis plants must go through before becoming ready during traditional drying. The curing process can take from two weeks up to a month just to get the botanical flowers ready for sale. Drying and curing are both important, so how does the introduction of the DigiVac StrataVac Bleed Vacuum controller help? When you freeze drying cannabis with The Original Resinator’s Crop-to-Cure® technology, there are important steps during lyophilization that Harvest Right freeze dryers alone can’t do.
Just like the bleeding of inert gasses into the distillation process helps increase molecular flow and throughput thereby improving the quality of distillate from avoiding additional time and oxidation in the boiling flask, with the introduction of a digital vacuum controller with a bleed valve into the Harvest Right freeze dryer chamber, molecular flow is increased and drying and/or curing time is decreased.
See an example of the DigiVac FYRA Bleed Control here. | Showing the flow varying in order to maintain a 0.5 Torr Set-point
By pairing the DigiVac StrataVac Bleed Vacuum Controller with The Original Resinator’s Crop-to-Cure® methodology, processing throughput and product quality are both dramatically improved. The curing process became fast enough to do a month’s work of standard curing in a day. Proving that freeze-drying saves significant time and yields better results.
Check out TOR’s Crop-to-Cure bundle here and learn more about the technology that flash freezes its chamber for dry or live’ bladeless trimming and optimal vacuum pressure for terpene preservation !
Results:
A complete solution for simplifying and creating an easy to implement protocol for freeze drying and curing botanical products. Through research and testing, we have found a simple and easy fix to increase the quality of lyophilized botanical products by adding a bleed vacuum control system to the freeze drying process.
Learn more about this inside look at TOR’s Behind the Process: Crop-to-Cure in this 4 part blog series! What more info on Crop-to-Cure? Check out their Q&A here!
