With the boom of the CBD industry, we have seen more CBD businesses pop up. If you are looking to get in on the action and start building your own CBD extraction facility, there are a few things you would need to consider.
The efficiency of your extraction all boils down to how you design your facility. An inefficient facility could mean loss of profit and even loss of clientele.
Perhaps the first thing to consider once you have a budget and an actual physical place for your facility is building a great team. You would need people that are knowledgeable about the extraction process, a few people who know how to run the business end of things, people to run quality checks and all that. Once you have a team, you can focus on the factors that come after that.
Safety
Arguably the most important part of building anything is safety. Working with the different extraction methods available — CO2, oil, or hydrocarbon — all involves working with toxic gasses that could be dangerous to the workers operating the machinery. Thus, it is important that when building an extracting facility, you would need to build proper and ample ventilation. And you would need the proper certificates to certify the safety of your building as well.
Ensure that the wiring of the building is ample at that there are enough fire exits and proper fire extinguishers available around the building.
Extraction machines
There are three main extraction methods as mentioned above. Before you build your facility, you have probably decided which extraction method you want to go with. With that in mind, below are a list of factors to consider when building a facility for your chosen extraction method.
Carbon Dioxide
The CO2 extraction method has a reduced chance of flammability. Many business owners choose this method because there are fewer safety requirements involved. However, it is important to keep in mind that carbon dioxide is an asphyxiant, meaning it could cause your workers to suffocate if you do not have ample ventilation. So it is imperative that if this is your chosen extraction method that you ensure your building is very well ventilated.
Oil and hydrocarbon extraction methods
Using either oil or hydrocarbon extraction methods can be flammable. Gaseous forms of butane, ethanol, and other hydrocarbons are highly flammable, and the oils used for the oil extraction method are flammable, as well. You would need to have strict fire and safety protocols in place and buy the right kind of safety equipment for your facility.
Workflow
Another thing to consider when building your extraction facility is how you want your product to travel from raw material to the finished product: CBD oil. You would need to ensure that your workflow is designed in such a way that your finished product is not contaminated by any means. A linear workflow would help ensure that any contaminants will remain in the first steps of the process and the finished product will be free from anything that will impact the purity of the extracted oil.
Spacing
Ensure that you leave ample space between the wall and your machines. This is to ensure that maintaining the machines will not be made any harder by not having any space to open and examine the machines.
All in all, these are the factors and considerations you would need to keep in mind when designing your own extraction facility. Add scalability to the group and you will have room for your business to grow should you wish to expand it.
Author profile:
Heather Smith is the Communications Manager at Sunday Scaries. She’s a composed copywriter and content strategist. She’s also a CBD advocate, promoting a healthy lifestyle free of stress and scaries.
