Extractor Optimized for the Processing of Natural Products
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Supercritical Fluid Technologies' new pilot scale supercritical extractor is made for the processing of natural products. The SFT-NPX-10 is designed to simplify extraction for a wide variety of natural products utilizing safe, efficient carbon dioxide. It may be used to facilitate the transition from laboratory scale equipment to large production scale systems.
Using supercritical CO2 to perform extractions on botanicals, herbs, spices and other natural product materials has significant benefits over the use of traditional liquid solvents. While the supercritical fluid possesses many of the same characteristics of a liquid solvent, it adds the benefits of high diffusivity and ”pressure tunable” solvency power. Additionally, no residual solvents are in either the extract or remaining biomass. There is no need to perform a distillation step since, upon dropping pressure, the CO2 becomes a gas. The extracted material is pure and in its natural state. The CO2 may be safely vented or optionally recycled for even greater efficiency. Since the solvency power of the fluid is pressure dependent, it is possible to “fractionate” to obtain multiple compositions from a single raw material. This makes practical some separations that are difficult or impossible to do with traditional liquid solvent and distillation processing.
The system is designed to perform supercritical fluid extractions in processing vessels of 20 liter capacity and below with single or dual separators. A Coriolis mass flow meter guarantees precise mass flow measurement. A pneumatic CO2 pump with an integral pre-chiller is used to maximize pumping efficiency. A programmable controller is available as an upgrade for automated regulation of pressure, temperature and process cycles. A carbon dioxide recycle option is available.
Supercritical Fluid Technologies Inc., (302) 738-3420, www.supercriticalfluids.com
