Extraction and growing
Federal Equipment Company buys and sells used hemp and botanical extraction equipment, from CO2, ethanol, and hydrocarbon extraction systems to wiped film and short path distillation units, evaporators, filtration, and centrifuges. Most of our warehouse inventory sits in more than 1 million sq ft of storage in Cleveland, OH.
What this covers
A hemp or CBD business can run three operations under one roof: growing and harvest, extraction and refining, and finished-product manufacturing. Each runs on different equipment, and a closing site often has some of all three.
We also handle hemp harvesting, trimming, and drying equipment, and the lines that turn extract into finished products. When a hemp or botanical processor closes or consolidates a site, we buy the equipment outright, take it on consignment, or sell it at online auction.
We are a third-generation family business and have bought and sold used process and packaging equipment since 1957. Our scope is processing equipment, so we do not buy or sell dispensary or retail fixtures. Larger extraction plants also run the reactors, columns, and solvent recovery systems on our chemical process equipment page.
Most of it comes from hemp, CBD, and botanical extraction companies closing or consolidating sites, but not all of it.
Growers, extractors, CBD makers, and infused-product manufacturers release equipment when they close a site or move production into fewer facilities. A single closure often includes grow room, extraction, lab, and packaging equipment, and an auction is a common way to sell that mix.
Wiped film stills, rotary evaporators, chillers, and vacuum pumps are standard in chemical, pharmaceutical, and research labs. We buy them from those plants too, which widens the supply of distillation equipment beyond the hemp industry.
Softgel, gummy, chocolate, and tablet lines for infused products are the same machines supplement and confectionery plants run. Those plants are a second source when a hemp or CBD company needs finished-product equipment.
A sale can run in both directions. Some extraction companies have both sold equipment to us and bought from us.
By finished product
What leaves the building sets the equipment train. Crude oil needs extraction and solvent recovery, distillate adds refining steps, and infused products add a manufacturing line on top.
| Finished product | Equipment train |
|---|---|
| Dried flower and pre-rolls | Bucking, trimming, drying, curing, grinding, cone filling, and jar or pouch packaging |
| Crude extract | Biomass milling; CO2, ethanol, or hydrocarbon extraction; filtration; and solvent recovery |
| Distillate | Winterization, filtration, decarboxylation, and wiped film or short path distillation |
| Terpenes | Steam distillation, CO2 extraction, or microwave terpene extraction |
| Vape cartridges | Distillate blending, cartridge filling, capping, and labeling |
| Edibles, softgels, and tablets | Infusion, then gummy depositing, chocolate molding, softgel encapsulation, or tablet compression |
| Tinctures and beverages | Emulsifying or homogenizing, liquid filling, capping, and canning |
Extraction is sized by how much biomass the plant runs each day, and the solvent decides the rest of the train. CO2 systems need high-pressure vessels and pumps, ethanol systems need solvent recovery and usually a centrifuge, and hydrocarbon systems need a closed loop and a room rated for flammable solvent. Choose the solvent first, then match vessel size to your daily biomass.
For distillate, crude oil is winterized, filtered, and decarboxylated, then distilled under deep vacuum to separate CBD and related compounds from terpenes, waxes, and heavier compounds. Terpenes come off in an early pass or are extracted separately by steam distillation. Distillation throughput depends on evaporator surface area, which is why distillation units are listed by square feet.
Hemp, CBD, and botanical products, from gummies and softgels to tinctures, topicals, and beverages, are made on the same kinds of machines supplement, confectionery, personal care, and beverage plants run. We sell tablet presses, softgel encapsulators, gummy depositors, chocolate molding lines, and liquid fillers, some from hemp and CBD facilities and some from supplement and food plants. Our nutraceutical and supplement equipment page covers the tablet, capsule, and gummy side in more depth.
Cartridge fillers, pre-roll and cone filling machines, and jar, pouch, and bottle lines finish most hemp and CBD products. They reach us mainly in facility auctions, often as complete lines with their cappers and labelers. For packaging lines outside the hemp and CBD market, see our packaging equipment page.
Extraction and solvent recovery
Drying and biomass handling
Infused products and packaging
Lab and testing
Complete extraction systems
Equipment names
Extraction equipment goes by several names, depending on the OEM and the solvent. Here is what each term means and where it fits in the process.
A CO2 extraction machine runs either subcritical or supercritical, and an SFE system is the supercritical kind, but all of them are built around pressure vessels, a CO2 pump, and separators. Butane extraction equipment and closed loop extractors both describe hydrocarbon systems, which run butane or propane through a sealed loop. An alcohol extraction machine is an ethanol system, usually paired with a basket centrifuge and solvent recovery. We have handled all three types, including hydrocarbon extractors and the butane and propane pumps that serve them.
A wiped film evaporator, also called a wiped film still, spreads crude oil into a thin film on a heated wall under deep vacuum. A short path still adds an internal condenser, so vapor travels only a short distance before it condenses. Rolled film distillation is a wiped film design that spreads the oil with rollers. The wiped film units we have handled run from 1.16 sq ft stills built of glass and stainless steel to 158 sq ft production evaporators.
Before distillation, the solvent has to come out of the extract. A rotary evaporator, often called a rotovap, does this in batches, from benchtop flasks up to 50-liter units. A falling film evaporator recovers ethanol continuously on a production line. Both sit in our evaporators category.
Ethanol extraction depends on separation. Basket centrifuges spin solvent out of soaked biomass, and filter presses, plate filters, and cartridge filters clear the extract before solvent recovery. Winterized oil runs through the same kinds of filters to remove fats and waxes. One botanical extraction plant we handled ran a 1,500 mm filter press alongside its falling film evaporator and three 6-inch stills.
Vacuum ovens purge residual solvent from extract, and decarboxylation tanks and ovens convert acid forms such as CBDA to CBD with heat. Upstream, biomass is dried, milled, and conveyed, so hammer mills, shredders, screeners, and screw conveyors all come through regularly. Chillers and vacuum pumps support nearly every step, and our plant utility equipment page covers them.
Growing and harvest
Cultivation and harvest equipment reaches us mostly through facility auctions, not the warehouse. Here is what we have sold from grow rooms, greenhouses, and hemp farms.
Indoor grow rooms run on grow lights, dehumidifiers, horizontal airflow fans, sliding grow tables, and reverse osmosis irrigation systems. We have sold all of them from cultivation facilities, along with greenhouse sections.
Field hemp operations run transplanters, tillers, and combines, and we have sold all three at auction. At harvest, bucking machines strip flower from the stem, and those come through our auctions as well.
After harvest, flower is trimmed, dried, and cured. We have sold more than a dozen Keirton Twister T2 trimmers. Dry trimmers, trim savers, bud sorters, drying trays on carts, and rotary and paddle dryers for hemp biomass come through too.
Looking for cultivation equipment? Watch our upcoming auctions, or tell us what you need and we will look for it.
Manufacturers
Federal Equipment Company does not manufacture equipment. We buy and sell used extraction systems, stills, and evaporators from the OEMs that built them, and these are the manufacturers we see most often.
Vitalis CO2 extraction systems, including the Q90 and R400, and Waters SFE botanical extraction systems recur on the CO2 side, along with ExtraktLAB 140 units. On the ethanol side, Eden Labs extraction and solvent recovery systems come up repeatedly.
Pope Scientific wiped film stills in 4-inch and 6-inch sizes, including two-stage systems, and Pfaudler wiped film evaporators from 1.2 to 103.4 sq ft lead the distillation side. Delta Separations rolled film and falling film units and CUP-series centrifuges, BUCHI Rotavapor and Across International SolventVap rotary evaporators, and Heidolph Hei-VAP units appear repeatedly.
Keirton Twister T2 trimmers, Bepex paddle dryers, Technophar softgel encapsulators, and Capmatic filling, capping, and labeling lines round out the list.
Brand pages
All manufacturers
Auctions and liquidations
Much of the hemp and botanical extraction equipment we handle is sold at online auction when a facility closes. The rest comes into our warehouse, where you can inspect it and we can test it before it ships.
Online auctions
When a hemp or botanical site closes, we often sell its contents in an online auction, on our own or with a partner auction house. We have run dozens of these sales for hemp, CBD, and botanical extraction companies in the United States and Canada. Each catalog lists where the equipment sits and how to arrange a preview, and upcoming sales are on our auctions page.
Turnkey sales
Some sites sell better intact. We have marketed a complete botanical processing plant, building and equipment together, and we sell complete extraction and packaging lines as well as single machines. Current offers are on our liquidations page.
Warehouse
Equipment in our Cleveland, OH warehouse can be inspected in person, and we run it under power where we can. We can refurbish and test a machine before it ships, replacing seals and wear parts and leak testing pressure equipment. Buyers often send an OEM representative to inspect.
Buying used
Extraction equipment is process equipment, but it handles pressure, flammable solvent, and plant material in the same room. Those three things shape what to check before you buy.
CO2 extraction runs at high pressure, so read the vessel's pressure rating on the nameplate and ask for its documentation early. Ethanol and hydrocarbon systems handle flammable solvent, so confirm that motors and controls are rated for the hazardous-area classification of the room they will run in. Listings carry the ratings when the nameplate or the seller's records show them.
Size the extraction system to the biomass you run each day, then size solvent recovery and distillation to its output. We see both ends of the range, from benchtop rotary evaporators out of development labs to production systems such as a falling film evaporator nominally rated at 300 lb per hour.
A lot of the extraction equipment we see is late-model, and some of it never ran. We have sold extraction systems still in their original crates, and listings say so when a machine is unused. Equipment already in our warehouse can ship in days or weeks once inspection and any refurbishment are complete.
Ask what a machine processed and how it was cleaned. Trimmers, grinders, and drying trays handle raw plant material and can carry mold spores, and our decontamination service can reduce bioburden, including mold and fungi, before shipment. Extraction and distillation equipment should be cleaned of residual extract and solvent before it runs a new product.
Selling surplus
Most of the hemp and botanical equipment we buy comes from companies closing a site or consolidating into fewer facilities. We can buy it outright, take it on consignment, or sell the whole site at auction, depending on the equipment and your deadline.
Send an equipment list, and we will give you a value and a plan for selling it.
Send photos of the equipment and its nameplates with your list. Call 800-652-2466 or email sales@fedequip.com.
Sell your surplus machinesBuying instead? Tell us what you are looking for. You can meet our team at MJBizCon in Las Vegas, NV, and dates are on our trade show schedule.
FAQ
Still have a question? Call 800-652-2466 or email sales@fedequip.com.
It depends on the solvent: a CO2 plant needs an extraction system with its pressure vessels, pump, and chiller. An ethanol plant needs extraction vessels, filters, usually a basket centrifuge, and a falling film or rotary evaporator to recover the solvent. What comes next depends on the product: distillate needs decarboxylation and wiped film or short path stills, while a crude or full-spectrum oil may stop after solvent recovery. We have handled all of it, in the warehouse and at auction.
In wiped film form, both distill hemp oil as a thin film on a heated wall under deep vacuum. A short path still puts the condenser inside the evaporator, so vapor travels a very short distance and the still can run at deeper vacuum and a lower temperature. A wiped film evaporator with an external condenser often runs first, stripping residual solvent and terpenes. Two-stage systems combine both steps, and we list them with our evaporators.
On our auctions page, which lists upcoming sales and an archive of past ones. We have run dozens of online auctions for hemp, CBD, and botanical extraction companies, often when a whole facility closes. Cultivation, extraction, lab, and packaging equipment can all sell in the same auction. Bidding is online, and previews are by appointment at the site.
Yes, mostly through auctions of hemp farms and cultivation facilities. We have sold hemp transplanters, a tiller, a combine, bucking machines, trimmers, bud sorters, and dryers for hemp biomass. Our warehouse holds less harvest equipment than extraction equipment, so if you need a specific machine, tell us what you are looking for and we will look for it.
For a CO2 system, start with the pressure rating on the nameplate and the vessel documentation. For an ethanol system, check that the motors and controls suit your extraction room's hazardous-area classification. Then confirm the system is complete, because chillers, pumps, and solvent recovery are sometimes sold separately. You can inspect equipment in Cleveland, OH, and we offer live video tours when a visit is not practical.
Usually, yes. CO2, ethanol, and steam distillation systems extract oils from many plants, and wiped film stills and rotary evaporators are standard in chemical and pharmaceutical labs. What changes is your process, your solvent, and your cleaning between products. Clean the equipment of residual extract before it runs a new botanical, and test your first batches against your own specification.
Yes. Hemp, CBD, and botanical products such as gummies, tinctures, topicals, and beverages run on the same kinds of machines supplement, confectionery, and personal care plants use. We sell tablet presses, softgel encapsulators, gummy depositors, chocolate molding lines, homogenizers, and liquid fillers. We have also sold vape cartridge fillers and pre-roll machines out of closing hemp and botanical facilities.
Start with a list of the equipment, photos that show each nameplate, and the date you have to vacate. From there we will suggest buying it outright, taking it on consignment, auctioning the site, or a mix of the three. Decommissioning, rigging, and removal are part of the job, with the cost taken from the sale proceeds instead of billed up front. Call 800-652-2466 or email sales@fedequip.com.
Call 800-652-2466 or email sales@fedequip.com. Inspections in Cleveland, OH by appointment.
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