Cannabis and tobacco combustion filter
Target of this work was to evaluate potential materials as filters of hazardous by products in cannabis smoking devices. Such harmful substances come from either combustion of a fuel such butane in a butane lighter or by incomplete combustion of cannabis itself. This project took into consideration all possible hazardous by products and investigated all potential adsorption materials for this application.
Cannabis combustion produces hundreds of species even at ppm concentrations with the majority of those exhibiting cancerous generation effects. All compounds present in cannabis [terpenes, long chain h/c, THC, etc] are combusted in high temperatures of lighters that lead to cracking of chemical bonds and formation of shorter volatile organic compounds [VOCs], smoke, tar, and free radicals. Complete combustion will also generate carbon dioxide whereas incomplete reaction will generate carbon monoxide. Depending on the actual contents of the lighter used it is very common that other hazardous species are found in combustion products and by products, such as NOX and SOX. Previous works have shown that the largest fraction of products reaching the human organism are not the cannabinoids themselves but smoke, tar, VOCs and other hazardous species [55-95%].
The decision on which adsorbent to use for the state of the art filter depends on a series of factors, such as:
ü Adsorption efficiency
ü Temperature of adsorption
ü Need for regeneration
ü Methodology of regeneration
ü Cost of application
ü Life time
ü Energy consumption
ü Other factors [such as toxicity effects, health and safety requirements, etc]