Nextleaf Solutions Ltd (CSE:OILS, OTCQB:OILFF) has announced that the US Patent and Trademark Office has granted the company its 18th issued US patent for a system in which spent cannabis biomass is heated in stages to reclaim residual cannabinoids while simultaneously generating carbon with the desired porosity level.
When utilized, Nextleaf explained that the patented process allows it to maximize its cannabinoid molecule yield, reduce waste destined for landfills, and create a new business vertical at a minimal cost.
The company noted that the Global Activated Carbon Market is expected to garner 2.7 million tonnes and have a total addressable market of over $5.1 billion in 2022. However, it said the cannabis industry has a major issue with cannabis waste. In 2020, 20% of all dried cannabis (279,837 kilograms) was destroyed by Canadian licensed producers, and over 500 tonnes of cannabis have been destroyed since 2018.
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"Given the US House of Representatives passing the MORE Act - a bill that would end the federal prohibition on cannabis - and the need for the US Government to address the opioid epidemic, we believe cannabis legalization will become a reality in the United States in the near term,” Nextleaf CEO Paul Pedersen said in a statement.
“With a US patent stack protecting what we believe to be the most efficient methods of producing distilled THC and CBD in a regulated market, Nextleaf is well-positioned to benefit from US legalization," he added.
The issued US patent is the latest example of the company’s respect for the plant and its continuous commitment to developing innovative solutions for industry-wide problems, the company said.
Nextleaf owns one of the largest collections of US patents among all cannabis companies, as well as a Greater Vancouver-based extraction plant producing low-cost cannabinoid ingredients under its Health Canada licenses.
The company’s multi-patented automated extraction plant up-cycles aged cannabis flower and biomass, which would otherwise be destroyed, into high-purity cannabinoid ingredients at an industrial scale.
Nextleaf's intellectual property includes 18 US patents and over 95 issued patents globally on cannabinoid processing including extraction, distillation, and acetylation. With this latest issued patent, the company said it has a success rate above 95% for pending applications to issued patents. The average success rate of pending to issued patents in the pharmaceutical industry is 42.8%.
Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com