BHO extraction equipment is the trade shorthand for closed-loop hydrocarbon extraction systems that run butane, propane, or a butane/propane blend as the solvent inside a sealed circuit and recover that solvent for reuse. What you are actually buying is four systems at once: a pressure system, a thermal system, a classified electrical system, and a document package that has to survive review by your authority having jurisdiction. If you are also weighing a solventless line alongside hydrocarbon, our guide to specifying a commercial bubble hash machine covers that path.
The sections below are ordered the way a specification comes together — what ships, which six specs separate one system from another, how to size throughput and recovery, what pressure documentation to demand, what a classified room requires of the equipment, and where automation belongs in the decision. If you are weighing solvents at a higher level first, our comparison of ethanol extraction vs hydrocarbon systems covers that fork.
What is BHO extraction equipment, and what actually ships in a commercial system?
A complete commercial hydrocarbon extraction system is a sealed circuit that stores chilled solvent, drives it through jacketed material columns holding the feedstock, filters and collects the resulting botanical oil, and returns the solvent to storage. Around that circuit sit instrumentation, gas detection, thermal control, and a classified enclosure boundary.
The code paths most jurisdictions adopt effectively require a closed circuit with a documented recovery path, which is why open-column work is not a specifiable commercial architecture. Our overview of closed-loop extraction systems walks the circuit itself in more depth.
What components make up a commercial hydrocarbon extraction system?
Eight subsystems: solvent handling, extraction, collection, recovery, thermal, controls and safety, containment, and post-processing. Each one is a line item a quote can either include or omit.
| Subsystem | What it includes |
|---|---|
| Solvent handling | Solvent storage tank, chilled solvent supply, solvent recovery tank, molecular sieve |
| Extraction | Jacketed material column or columns, sight glasses, inline color remediation column (CRC), sintered filter stack |
| Collection | Collection vessel (also called the collection base or collection chamber) |
| Recovery | Passive thermal-differential path, or an active recovery pump or compressor |
| Thermal | Temperature control units (TCUs) — heat source plus chiller, often a cryogenic chiller for fresh-frozen work |
| Controls and safety | Instrumentation, PLC or manual control panel, LEL gas detection with interlocks, emergency shutoff |
| Containment | Classified extraction enclosure or booth, sealed penetrations, exhaust and make-up air |
| Post-processing | Vacuum oven or purge equipment, decarboxylation, distillation, crystallization |
What does a BHO extraction equipment quote usually leave out?
Most quotes price the columns, collection vessel, and recovery path, then leave the TCUs, gas detection and interlocks, the classified enclosure, and every piece of post-processing equipment as line items you discover later. The extractor is a minority of the project, and those omissions usually surface after the room drawing is already stamped.
The mistake we correct most often in early conversations is a buyer comparing an extractor-only quote against a full scope of supply and concluding the second vendor is expensive. It isn't a price difference. It's a different project.
Why do heaters, chillers, and air compressors sit outside the classified volume?
Heaters, chillers, and air compressors are generally not rated for classified service, so they sit outside the classified volume with sealed wall penetrations feeding hoses and conduit through. That single constraint drives room layout, utility routing, and mechanical space, and it is the reason we design equipment and enclosures as one package.
MACH builds its hydrocarbon extraction equipment alongside the EE-1 and EE-2 Series enclosures, ASR Series solvent recovery, and MST and MDT Series chilling systems, all designed, fabricated, assembled and tested in our vertically integrated Michigan facility.
Which six specifications actually separate one BHO extraction system from another?
Six axes decide the outcome: throughput, solvent recovery, pressure rating and vessel documentation, controls and classified electrical, automation level, and scope of supply. Column capacity in pounds is the number every vendor leads with, and it is the weakest single predictor of what your lab produces in a week.
Normalizing three quotes onto one sheet means forcing every vendor to answer the same six questions in the same units. Until scope of supply is normalized, the prices are not comparable: one vendor's "system" is a column and a collection base, another's includes recovery, thermal control, controls, and the enclosure.
| Axis | What to ask for | What a weak answer looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Throughput | Capacity per shift under stated operating conditions, with cycle time, changeover, and cleaning included | A column volume in pounds and nothing else |
| Solvent recovery | Mass per unit time at a defined collection-vessel and solvent-tank temperature, demonstrated at factory acceptance test | A recovery percentage with no conditions attached |
| Pressure and vessels | Design pressure envelope, ASME documentation, hydrostatic test and NDE records, material traceability | "ASME certified" with no vessel data package |
| Controls and classified electrical | UL 508A industrial control panel documentation, nameplate class/group/temperature marking, LEL detection and interlock logic | Verbal assurance that the panel "meets code" |
| Automation level | A clear statement of which steps are sequenced by the controller and which are operator actions | Automation described as a feature list |
| Scope of supply | An itemized bill of materials, plus who supplies enclosure, thermal, recovery, installation, and training | A single line item labeled "complete system" |
Selecting on lowest quoted price across non-comparable scopes is how a lab ends up integrating three vendors in a room sized for one. The counter-move is boring and effective: one comparison sheet, six rows, no exceptions.
How should throughput be specified — per run, per shift, or per day?
Specify throughput per shift, not per run, and state it as a range with its assumptions named. Cycle time and changeover labor, not column volume, set daily output, so a smaller column that turns more cycles frequently beats a larger column that turns fewer.
Per-shift throughput is a function of cycle time and column volume together, not of column volume alone. The method is straightforward arithmetic once you have honest inputs: column working capacity multiplied by cycles achievable per shift, minus time lost to changeover, purge, and cleaning.
Illustratively, a column rated at 20 lb running four cycles in a shift is an 80 lb theoretical figure, and it is the changeover and cleaning subtraction, not the 20, that separates that from what the shift actually delivers. The defensible way to quote that number is as a range bounded above by the theoretical figure, stated with the shift length, the feedstock basis, and the cycle count it assumes. Ask vendors to state the assumptions behind every cycle-time number they quote. Our guide to how to measure extraction system throughput sets out the measurement discipline in detail.
Does fresh-frozen or dried feedstock change the same column's rating?
Yes. Fresh-frozen botanical material loads at a different density than dried material, so one column carries two different working capacities. Require every vendor to state which basis their rating uses, because a capacity quoted on dried material will not hold when you load fresh-frozen. Solvent volume moves with it, so the solvent-to-material ratio belongs in the same conversation as column sizing.
Right-sizing the column almost always moves the constraint downstream. Once loading is no longer the limit, the bottleneck lands on solvent recovery and on purge and post-processing capacity, which is the real subject of the next section. Whether that scales cleanly is the question we take up in is hydrocarbon extraction a scalable method.
Why does the solvent recovery path decide your real throughput?
Solvent recovery capacity, not column capacity, is the throughput ceiling on a hydrocarbon system, because a system cannot start the next run until the solvent is back in the tank. Every minute of recovery time is a minute the column is idle, which makes recovery capacity the number that governs shifts per day.
Two architectures dominate. Passive thermal recovery moves solvent using the temperature differential between a warmed collection vessel and a chilled solvent tank: fewer moving parts, less maintenance, and a recovery rate that depends entirely on how well your thermal system holds that differential. Active recovery uses a pump or compressor to move vapor against pressure, which shortens cycle time and adds part count, service intervals, and classified-electrical scope. Neither is universally correct; the choice follows your shift model and your maintenance capability.
How do you make a solvent recovery rate verifiable?
Ask for it in this form: state recovery rate as mass per unit time at a defined collection-vessel temperature and a defined solvent-tank temperature, and demonstrate it at factory acceptance test. A percentage with no conditions attached cannot be verified, reproduced, or held to.
Then size that rate against daily throughput rather than a single batch. Our piece on why solvent recovery equipment sets the pace of the lab makes the case at the facility level, and the ASR Series shows what a dedicated recovery stage looks like as distinct equipment rather than an afterthought bolted to the extractor.
Recovery also sets the pace of everything after it. Purge, DS Series decarboxylation, WFDS Series wiped film distillation, and DMU Series crystallization all queue behind the extraction stage, so specify the downstream chain in the same exercise instead of buying it a year later.
What pressure rating and vessel documentation should you require?
Specify the design pressure envelope for the most demanding solvent and the warmest condition the system will ever see, not for the solvent you plan to run on day one. Propane and propane-heavy blends raise the pressure profile relative to pure butane or isobutane, so a system envelope chosen around a single butane recipe constrains your process library later. The solvent-behavior detail lives on our butane extraction equipment page; this section is about the specification.
According to ASME, BPVC Section VIII Division 1 provides requirements for the design, fabrication, inspection, testing, and certification of pressure vessels operating at internal or external pressures exceeding 15 psig, including requirements for materials and for fabrication methods such as welding. That is what a U stamp speaks to: the vessel was built and inspected to a published construction code. It says nothing about your control panel, your area classification, or your recovery rate.
What vessel documentation should you demand before you sign?
Ask for material traceability, weld and non-destructive examination records, hydrostatic test records, nameplate data, and a solvent-compatibility statement for every wetted component. Ask for the vessel data package covering the pressure vessels in the system rather than a system-level statement that the equipment is "ASME certified," and ask before the purchase order, not after delivery, because a vessel without records is a vessel you cannot submit.
MACH systems are built to CE, IECEx, UL 508A, PSI, and ASME compliance requirements as applicable to the equipment and configuration, and they are designed to contain solvent within a sealed circuit and engineered to reduce ignition risk. Those are claims we support with documentation rather than adjectives.
What does a classified environment require of the equipment, and what will the AHJ ask for?
Area classification applies to a volume of space, and every electrical item inside that volume must be rated for it. That makes classification an equipment-selection constraint, not a construction detail you resolve after the equipment arrives.
Class I, Division 1 and Class I, Division 2 are designated hazardous (classified) location classifications under OSHA's electrical standard for hazardous locations, which works alongside NFPA 70 and NEC Article 500. Division 1 assumes ignitible concentrations are present under normal operating conditions; Division 2 assumes they are present only under abnormal conditions. The practical difference is cost and scope: what you can install, how it must be wired, and how much of your ancillary equipment has to move outside the boundary. Our explainer on C1D1 and C1D2 environments in extraction facilities covers the distinction for facility engineers.
What classification documentation does OSHA require, and who owns it?
Per OSHA, areas designated as hazardous (classified) locations established after August 13, 2007 must be properly documented, and that documentation must be available to anyone authorized to design, install, inspect, maintain, or operate electrical equipment at the location. Classification documentation is a deliverable, and it needs an owner named early in the project.
Read the nameplate before you accept delivery. OSHA requires equipment to be marked to show the class, group, and operating temperature or temperature range for which it is approved, based on operation in a 40-degree C ambient. Those three fields answer three different questions. The class states the kind of hazard the equipment is rated for, the group narrows it to the family of flammable gases or vapors present in your process, and the temperature marking — often shown as a T-code — states the maximum surface temperature the equipment reaches in service. Your design professional's job is to match the group to the solvents you intend to run and confirm the temperature marking sits below their ignition temperature. If a piece of equipment inside your classified volume carries no such marking, it does not belong there.
What are the two paths to approval for extraction equipment?
Two routes are generally recognized: equipment listed and labeled to the applicable standard, or an engineered technical report signed by a registered design professional. Which one applies is a question for your authority having jurisdiction.
UL publishes ANSI/CAN/UL/ULC 1389, a bi-national US and Canada safety standard for plant oil extraction equipment installed in ordinary (unclassified) and hazardous (classified) locations, covering extractors, extraction booths and pods, and post-processing equipment, and addressing fire, electric shock, injury, and explosion risks. That standard was first published November 25, 2019 and is ANSI approved, so a recognized listing standard for this equipment category exists and is current.
The International Fire Code's processing and extraction facilities chapter is the code path most US jurisdictions adopt for solvent-based botanical extraction, and it generally recognizes those two routes: equipment that is listed and labeled to the applicable standard, or an engineered technical report reviewed and signed by a registered design professional — the engineer peer review that appears on many vendors' submittal packages — itemizing every component with manufacturer, model, material, and solvent compatibility. Adopted editions and local amendments vary, and your AHJ may also apply NFPA 55 or NFPA 58 to solvent storage and handling. Confirm scope with your AHJ early. Bring the fire marshal into schematic design, not final inspection; that single sequencing choice prevents more redesigns than any component upgrade. Our notes on ventilation, detection, and system design that stands up to inspection cover what reviewers tend to ask for.
UL 508A applies to the industrial control panel, which is a separate question from how the room is classified. Because we build classified extraction enclosure systems including the EE-1 and EE-2 Series, the equipment boundary and the room boundary get engineered together rather than negotiated between two vendors. Facility engineers building the wider program will find the same logic applied across process areas in our guide to botanical extraction equipment and GMP lab standards.
Automated or operator-driven: which hydrocarbon system fits your labor model?
Automation is a labor and consistency decision before it is a throughput decision. Automated sequencing removes ordering errors, shortens the ramp for a new operator, and reduces run-to-run variance that comes from technique. It also cuts the time an operator spends inside a Class I, Division 1 volume, which is itself a design consideration.
MACH builds both lines, which means we can compare them as first-party products rather than market categories. The AHES Series automated hydrocarbon extraction systems sequence the run through the control system, with configurations offered across a range of batch capacities. The MHES Series keeps the operator in direct control of each step, which is genuinely useful for R&D, small-batch work, and blend experimentation. A MHES-20 operator-driven hydrocarbon system is often the right specification for a development suite sitting beside a production line.
Whichever line you choose, specify the support with the machine. Installation, operator training, and technical support determine how fast a system reaches repeatable batch-to-batch recovery, and they are the axis a reseller or catalog storefront structurally cannot serve.
Frequently asked questions about specifying BHO extraction equipment
Is BHO extraction equipment the same thing as a closed-loop hydrocarbon system?
Yes — in commercial practice they describe the same equipment. "BHO extraction equipment" is trade shorthand; "closed-loop hydrocarbon extraction system" is the engineering description, and it is the term you want on purchase and permitting documents.
Which specification most often limits daily output?
Solvent recovery. A system cannot start the next run until the solvent is back in the tank, so recovery capacity — not column volume in pounds — governs how many cycles a shift can turn.
How should a vendor state solvent recovery rate?
As mass per unit time at a defined collection-vessel temperature and a defined solvent-tank temperature, demonstrated at factory acceptance test. A recovery percentage quoted with no conditions attached cannot be verified or reproduced.
Do I need a Class I, Division 1 room to run a hydrocarbon extraction system?
Requirements vary by jurisdiction, and the determination belongs to your authority having jurisdiction. In many facilities the classified volume is contained within a listed or engineered extraction enclosure rather than applied to the whole room. Confirm the approach with your AHJ and your design professional before you finalize the layout.
Can chillers, heaters, and air compressors sit inside the classified volume?
Generally no. That ancillary equipment is usually not rated for classified service, so it sits outside the classified volume with sealed wall penetrations feeding hoses and conduit through — a constraint that drives room layout, utility routing, and mechanical space.
Can one hydrocarbon system run butane, propane, and blended solvents?
Yes. MACH hydrocarbon systems can be configured for butane, propane, or butane/propane blended solvent service, provided the design pressure envelope and wetted-component compatibility were specified for the most demanding solvent in that set.
What documentation should ship with a commercial hydrocarbon extraction system?
Expect vessel documentation — material traceability, weld and NDE records, hydrostatic test records, and nameplate data — plus a component list with solvent-compatibility statements, control panel documentation, and operating and maintenance manuals. Ask for factory acceptance test results against the stated recovery and operating conditions as well.
What is included in installation and operator training?
Installation covers setting and connecting the system, verifying utilities and thermal loads, commissioning the controls and detection interlocks, and confirming the system operates to its stated conditions on site. Operator training covers run sequencing, solvent handling, recovery operation, cleaning and changeover, routine maintenance, and the alarm and shutdown responses your operators need before the first production run.
Why specify the system once, with one vendor of record?
The buyers who avoid a second room redesign are the ones who treat the extractor, the recovery path, the thermal system, the control panel, and the enclosure as one specification with one document package behind it. That is the position we build from: engineered product lines — AHES, MHES, ASR, EE-1 and EE-2, MST and MDT, DS, WFDS, DMU — designed, fabricated, assembled and tested in our vertically integrated Michigan facility, with installation, operator training, and on-demand technical support attached.
Send us your throughput target, your feedstock basis, and your room constraints, and talk to our engineering team about a hydrocarbon system scoped against all six axes.
MACH Technologies manufactures and sells processing equipment. It does not cultivate, produce, sell, or distribute botanical end products.
Extraction equipment must be installed, permitted, and operated in accordance with all applicable federal, state, and local fire, building, and electrical codes, including Class I Division 1 requirements where applicable. Consult your Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) before installation.
Throughput, yield, purity, and solvent recovery figures vary with input material, system configuration, and process parameters. Published figures are not a guarantee of results.
Nothing on this site is medical advice, and no MACH Technologies equipment or the products made with it are represented as diagnosing, treating, curing, or preventing any disease.
Operators are responsible for verifying that their intended use is lawful in their jurisdiction.