Thar Process

At the start of 2022, 37 states have legalized cannabis medicinally/ recreationally and many are calling it the next "business boom." The concurrent increase in cannabis production has created a significant demand for scalable processing procedures to extract phytochemicals from the plant, such as THC, flavonoids, and terpenes. Given the therapeutic capabilities of these compounds, which have been consistently proven in the scientific literature for a wide range of illnesses, it would be a shameful for this new industry to follow the food industry by using unsustainable and toxic hydrocarbon solvents. Fortunately for the planet and consumers, some cannabis product producers are continuously on the lookout for higher quality, safer, scalable and more cost-efficient extraction methods. While there are numerous methods for extracting these components from cannabis, the most ecologically friendly one is through ‘upcycled’ carbon dioxide (CO2). This is where Thar Process steps in, with a clean and effective technology that allows for the extraction and separation of a wide range of substances in a fast and safe fashion for both employees and customers.

With its tagline "Sustainable – Trust," Thar Process is committed to providing sustainable CO2-based processes for natural product extraction of flavors, food components, supplements, and cosmetics, as well as purification of synthetic analogs for pharmaceuticals. "We only utilize CO2, not any harsh hydrocarbon solvents or flammable ethanol in the extraction process and about 98 percent for the isolation/purification process – which means a very low OPEX that is also good for the bottom line,” says Todd Palcic, President of Thar Process.

Thar Process's journey dates back to 1990 and in 1996 the company commissioned the world's largest industrial-scale supercritical chromatography system at Dupont- Merck Pharmaceuticals. A couple of years later, it constructed an ultra-high pressure 40cm SFC system to purify micronutrients from palm oil in Malaysia today. Along the timeline, Thar has been developing a sustainable CO2 process technology, which is a more efficient, safer, and organic method to obtain plant extracts while retaining the inherent qualities of cannabis plants.

The company offers CO2 extraction and purification solutions for the life sciences and cannabis sectors that include chemistry, design, and process development and optimization from idea to commercialization. The company's line of extraction (SFE) and industrial chromatography (SFC) systems meet US GMP standards including CFR 21 Part 11 compliant software and EU GMP. The goal for Thar's purification technology is to replace all normal-phase chromatographic methods including large scale flash chromatography.

As a leader in CO2 technology and equipment, Thar provides its clients with a single point of contact for contract R&D, pilot CO2 and subcritical water extraction, and purification solutions including liquid-liquid extraction and SFC. Thar takes on custom toll processing projects at its state-of-the-art cGMP, FDA registered facilities and then transfers the technology to the users when they are ready to buy their own equipment at their own facility.

Additionally, Thar's toll processing services enable its customers to boost their competitiveness while reducing costly downtime, training, facilities changes and CAPEX associated with purchasing equipment. Some applications for SFE include spices, seed oils, defatting for plant-based proteins, hops flavoring and other flavor/ fragrance compounds. For SFC, major applications include purification of omega-3 fatty acids from algae and fish oil. Another example pesticide/fungicide remediation because they typically carry through most extraction processes, necessitating their removal later in the purification process. Thar SFC systems can also be used to reduce THC levels in pure CBD products to compliant or undetectable levels. They can extract CBN or separate delta-8-THC from delta-9- THC and also take the terpene purification process to new heights by creating terpene isolates.

With the industry evolving, standing out from the crowd is more important than ever, which means cannabis extraction solution providers must be able to personalize their formulations. To that end, Thar's purification technology allows bulk formulators to easily blend exact components and precision formulas.

Finally, the company has established itself as a sustainable, global leader in the cannabis industry. Today, Thar stands tall as the only company that provides engineering, manufacturing, contract R&D services, scaleup services, and sells the equipment for toll processing on a large scale. "We operate from cradle to grave, from milligrams to tonnes of sale, from our laboratory to the processing plant or custom produced equipment," concludes Palcic.