Supercritical Fluid Extraction System

ChemTech Innovators R&D Center

extractfront.jpg
Front View of the Supercritical Fluid Extraction Unit [Binary and Ternary System Capable]

The supercritical extraction unit comprises of an 4 ft by 3 ft by 7 ft steel enclosure which is skid mounted. The front of the enclosure has operator accessible valves, pressure gauges, heater control, and booster pump control. This unit is versatile in configuration and can accommodate up to two reactors in series and includes a view cell for observing supercritical phenomena.

Presently Installed Reactor: 1000 mL 316 Stainless Steel Bolt Closure, Autoclave Engineers
Reactor MAWP: 5800 psig at 650°F
Modes of Operation: batch, semi-batch, continuous
Working Fluid: Supercritical fluids such as carbon dioxide, alkanes, alcohols and binary mixtures thereof. Excludes water and highly corrosive or oxidative environments
Pressure Development: Booster pump (pneumatically driven compressor) and micro-metering pump
Control and Acquisition: Electronic PID heater control, Electronic PID mass flow control, pneumatic PID pressure control, operator based data acquisition.
Principal Applications: Presently configured for supercritical extraction of biologically active components from plant material. Additional applications in alternate configurations include but are not limited to: devulcanization of rubber, supercritical infusion, supercritical polymerization, degreasing and cleaning of parts, thermodynamic relationship studies.

extractrctr
Supercritical extraction unit as configured with a 1000 mL bolt closure reactor set up as a packed bed [Capable of handling up to a ternary fluid mixture system]

It should be noted that most of our supercritical fluid processing systems in the ChemTech Innovators Lab are fully capable of handling supercritical extraction process treatments, even if they have more particular features implemented for advanced operations synergistically exploiting the properties of supercritical fluids and the properties of target substrate materials. Fluids that can be utilized as supercritical solvents in these extraction systems are not limited to CO2 and its co-solvent systems, but include a wide variety of other fluids such as N2O, VF2, MMA, propane, hexane, methanol, ethanol, acetone, and more, even though their adoption in practical supercritical extraction processes may be rare.