Decarb

Decarb is Here.
Beaker & Wrench just launched their first
Decarboxylation Reactor.
I sat down with Ace Shelander, CEO, to find out more.

Los Angeles, CA —

You’ve been in wiped-film evaporation for 5 years now, why are you just now launching the decarb system?

“With no solutions for decarboxylation currently on the market that met our rigorous standards, and throughput increasing exponentially by our clients, we knew we had to launch our own reactor. Our clients keep asking about it, but I have been dedicating my time to perfecting the wiped-film design. We expanded our team and scaled the company, which gave me a little wiggle room to develop the decarb system.”

Give me the high-points of the design.

“The unit is a 50L vessel that holds 40L of crude oil. Its filled by inserting the suction wand directly into your oil container, and the UL-listed Welch Chemical-duty diaphragm vacuum pump draws the oil into the reactor. We pre-heat the oil prior to filling the decarb, wrapping our Crude Cozy around the bucket to make it easy to transfer. It will take about 3 hours to decarboxylate 40L of crude oil.”

What is decarboxylation?

“Decarboxylation is the process of removing the carboxyl group from a cannabinoid through heating. ”

“The carboxyl group comes off during the heating process and leaves as CO2 and water vapor. The decarb step is essential in order to achieve the optimal distilling pressures that our Wiped-Film Evaporators are designed for. The decarb step is also required in order to activate THCa into THC. THCa is non-psychoactive. The heating process also removes residual solvents and terpenes which are collected in small chambers below the reactor.”

Why would someone choose your system over a competitors?

“Besides being faster and on one skid, it’s more automated than competitor reactors due to a vent-valve that removes the need to monitor the system. This is crucial, since it prevents overflow even with high fill levels. In addition, we use a digital vacuum gauge to accurately read the pressure in the system and our heating is integrated, whereas the competition does not provide this within the unit. The competition, lacking this, requires the customer to have separately plumbed heating systems. This alone adds cost in your time and money.”

Could this machine be used outside of the cannabis/hemp industry?

“Absolutely. Any reaction that needs to be performed either under vacuum or light positive pressure, with or without heat and requiring mixing can be carried out in our decarboxylation reactor. Food and Beverage, Pharmaceutical and Laboratory research all use reactors.”

Is there anything else people should know about the Beaker & Wrench BW-40LDR?

“It’s rated from full vacuum to 3 PSIG and paired with a 3KW heater for the body jacket that goes up to 200C (392F). 3KW delivers the specifications re claim without over-sizing the vacuum, which removes excess cost to the customer. The heat is controlled through our UL-listed Huber CC-304. It comes with collection jars for volatiles, as well as a UL-listed diaphragm vacuum pump. One of these units can easily keep up with four 6″ wiped-film evaporators.”