A Review of Supercritical Fluid Extraction Technology and Application Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • The supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) technology was firstly documented on 1822. In this review paper, the authors contemplated the inhibiting factors that resulted in limited industrial application and analysis using SFE. The driving trend nowadays is to apply what have been discovered almost 200 years ago is in an escalating fashion. The major application of the supercritical state of a common gas (carbon dioxide) is an extremely important technology, since at the critical pressure and temperature carbon dioxide is not a solid, not a liquid neither a gas and it has a no surface tension, which qualifies to be an extremely good ‘non polar solvent’ and therefore applicable for extraction of essential oils, caffeine and several other applications. The major advantages on the SFE are over the lower operating energy cost and the extracted compound remains intact as there is not thermal decomposition and the final concentrate is free of any residual processing solvent due to carbon dioxide’s natural tendency being a gas which however, is volatile in ambient temperature and pressure. The process of purification does not require any distillation to purify the extracted compound, just the pressure is released and the carbon dioxide as a solvent will leave the concentrate liquid at the bottom of the vessel, as a gas, and will not have any binding or forming azeotrope mixture that are difficult to separate to high purity. The supercritical condition of a gas or liquid is not fully being exploited and there is a great opportunity for more industrial application as to be elaborated in this paper.

publication date

  • 2014

volume

  • 69

issue

  • 6