Processing Math

How to Calculate Extraction Yield, Drying Capacity, and Potency Variance in Cannabis Processing

The five core formulas every cannabis and hemp processor should be able to run by hand, worked through with real masses, percentages, and units.

Five formulas carry most of the math in a cannabis or hemp facility: extraction yield, distillation throughput, drying room capacity, canopy utilization, and batch potency variance. Each needs consistent units before you touch a calculator. Fix your mass basis first. Biomass is usually weighed dry at 10 to 12 percent residual moisture, cannabinoid content comes from a Certificate of Analysis as a weight percent, and extract mass is the net crude after the collection vessel is scraped and tared. Mixing a wet-weight input with a dry-weight potency is the single most common arithmetic error, and it can throw a yield number off by 20 to 25 percent.

Extraction yield has two versions that people confuse. Mass yield is extract mass divided by biomass mass, times 100. Cannabinoid recovery is cannabinoids recovered divided by cannabinoids available, times 100. Take 50 kg of biomass testing 15 percent total cannabinoids: you have 7.5 kg of cannabinoids in the feed. If a CO2 run pulls 9.0 kg of crude that assays at 70 percent cannabinoids, you recovered 6.3 kg. Cannabinoid recovery is 6.3 divided by 7.5, or 84 percent. Mass yield is 9.0 divided by 50, or 18 percent. The Extraction Yield calculator keeps both figures separate so you quote the right one.

Distillation throughput on a wiped-film still is limited by evaporation rate, not pump speed. Rated feed rate might be 5 kg per hour, but most cannabinoid distillate needs two passes, so effective distillate output is closer to feed rate divided by passes, adjusted for recovery. Start with 20 kg of winterized, decarbed crude at 75 percent cannabinoids. First pass strips terpenes and volatiles, losing roughly 10 percent of mass. Second pass yields distillate at 88 to 92 percent potency with about 90 percent cannabinoid recovery through the still. Net distillate lands near 15 kg. The Distillation Throughput calculator converts rated kg per hour into shift-level output after pass count and losses.

Drying room capacity comes down to usable rack area, hang density, and moisture loss, not floor square footage. Fresh cannabis loses roughly 75 to 78 percent of its weight in drying, so a dry-to-wet ratio of 0.22 to 0.25 is normal. Load 500 lb of fresh biomass and expect 110 to 125 lb dry. Capacity per room equals usable linear rack feet times pounds of wet biomass per foot, held to airflow limits of about one air change per minute. If you hang 3 lb wet per linear foot across 400 usable feet, that room holds 1,200 lb wet. The Drying Room Capacity calculator ties rack geometry to batch size.

Cultivation room utilization has two numbers worth running. Canopy utilization is active canopy area divided by licensed canopy area, times 100. Annual harvest frequency is 365 divided by the sum of flower days, turnaround, and any veg time charged to that room. A 60 day flower cycle plus 14 days of turnaround gives 74 days, so 365 divided by 74 is 4.9 harvests per year. At 45 grams per square foot per harvest, a 1,000 square foot room produces 45,000 grams per cycle, or about 220,000 grams annualized. The Cultivation Room Utilization calculator combines canopy percent and cycle count into grams per square foot per year.

Batch potency variance tells you whether a lot is homogeneous enough to pass label claims. Pull a sample of n units, measure THC percent on each, then compute the coefficient of variation: standard deviation divided by mean, times 100. Six edible samples averaging 10.0 mg per serving with a standard deviation of 0.35 mg give a CV of 3.5 percent, comfortably inside a typical plus or minus 10 to 15 percent homogeneity window. If the CV climbs past 5 percent on flower or 10 percent on infused product, your mixing or portioning step is drifting. The Batch Potency Variance calculator returns mean, standard deviation, and CV from raw assay values.

Chain the inputs correctly and the numbers reconcile. Biomass mass and CoA potency feed extraction yield. Crude mass and its assay feed distillation throughput. Fresh weight and rack geometry feed drying capacity. Cycle time and canopy area feed utilization. Per-unit assays feed potency variance. Keep every mass in the same unit, kilograms or pounds, never both, and always state whether a percent is by weight or by cannabinoid mass. A worked example that closes the mass balance within 2 to 3 percent means your metering, scales, and lab data agree, which is the real point of running these formulas by hand before trusting a spreadsheet.

Published 2026-07-02.