| | | On July 26, 2016, the company signed a lease for 9,000 sf in north Portland, OR as a processing location to
complement or serve in lieu of the company’s processing facility in Aurora. The lease term is 3 years beginning
August 1, 2016
Currently, GPO is operating five 20 liter CO2 extraction machines. A CO2 extraction machine operated by GLH has
capacity to process approximately 10 pounds of Trim per day for conversion into cannabis oil with a target yield of
approximately 10% of the weight of the Trim that is input. Thus a CO2 extraction machine has the capacity to produce
approximately 450 grams of CO2 based cannabis oil per day. With five machines in operation GPO’s production
output is approximately 2,250 grams of cannabis oil per day.
Hydrocarbon Extraction:
Hydrocarbon or Hydro-carbon/Propane extraction uses non-polar hydrocarbon as a solvent. Hydro-carbon is
especially well-suited for stripping dried cannabis material its cannabinoids, terpenes, and other essential oils while
leaving behind the majority of unwanted chlorophyll and plant waxes.
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GPO operates two hydro-carbon extractors. Both machines utilize similar preparation and processing methodologies.
During extraction, the solvent washes over the plant material and is then purged off from the resulting solution using
a variety of techniques and variables such as heat, vacuum and agitation.
After obtaining hydro-carbon based oils through this extraction method, the oil will be vacuum purged in a vacuum
chamber to separate the cannabis oil from any remaining hydro-carbon gas. The vacuum oven is heated to release the
Hydro-carbon and Propane, leaving behind only the extract. This "purging" process, depending on duration of
exposure to vacuum and heat, and will give the hydro-carbon characteristic textures, such as wax, crumble, shatter
and butter.
These post-extraction processes also determine what the final texture of the product is, whether it be butter, shatter,
or a more traditional sticky cannabis oil. Routinely testing at over 60% tetrahydrocannabinol (“THC”), Hydro-carbon
is the most popular choice for “dabbing”, when properly-made, hydro-carbon extracted cannabis oil offers a very
potent, direct, and flavorful method of ingesting cannabis.
The Hydro-carbon process, unlike the CO2 process generally requires higher quality cannabis material in order to
have higher quality finished product. GPO operates one hydro-carbon extraction machines for the processing and
production of hydro- carbon extracted cannabis oil. The input capacity of the machines is 60 pounds of Trim per day
per machine which yields approximately 7 pounds or 3,200 grams of hydro-carbon extracted cannabis oil per day. |
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