Supercritical solvent extractions

In extractive distillation with a supercritical solvent, extraction rather than vacuum is used to volatilize the components into the vapor phase. Operating temperatures can be lower than in conventional distillation, and the desired C8-Ci2 oxy fraction will then have been subjected to less thermal degradation. Carbon dioxide has a critical temperature that meets this goal. 

In contrast to the previously reported work utilizing supercritical solvent extraction of coal, the major objective of our research effort is to develop a desulfurization process that will result in a solid product suitable for combustion in existing coal fired utility boilers. 

Model for Extraction from Solids Using Supercritical Solvents Extraction from solids with supercritical gases can be a complicated process if the two phase flow, the properties of the solid material, and the inhomogeneities of the fluid and the solid phases have to be considered. For most cases, a far simpler model is sufficient. In the proposed model, the following parameters are considered sufficient to calculate the progress and the result of an extraction [3,4] ... 

SELEX-Asp [SELective Extraction of Asphaltene] A process for removing asphaltenes from vacuum residual oils using supercritical solvent extraction with -pentane. Developed by ISTP Canada and the China University of Petroleum. 

Several standard methods for the quantitative analysis of food samples are based on measuring the sample s mass following a selective solvent extraction. For example, the crude fat content in chocolate can be determined by extracting with ether for 16 h in a Soxhlet extractor. After the extraction is complete, the ether is allowed to evaporate, and the residue is weighed after drying at 100 °C. This analysis has also been accomplished indirectly by weighing a sample before and after extracting with supercritical GO2. 

Solvent extraction removes chlorophyll and other pigments to give a light-colored product but increases processing costs. Furthermore, solvent extraction removes p-carotene and reduces vitamin A activity (89) (see Terpenoids Vitamins). Supercritical CO2 extraction at 30 and 70 MPa (4,350 and 10,150 psi) and 40°C removed 90 and 70% carotene and lutein, respectively, from alfalfa LPC (96). This process avoids organic solvent residues and recovers valuable by-products. 

Supercritical Fluid Extraction. Supercritical fluid (SCF) extraction is a process in which elevated pressure and temperature conditions are used to make a substance exceed a critical point. Once above this critical point, the gas (CO2 is commonly used) exhibits unique solvating properties. The advantages of SCF extraction in foods are that there is no solvent residue in the extracted products, the process can be performed at low temperature, oxygen is excluded, and there is minimal protein degradation (49). One area in which SCF extraction of Hpids from meats maybe appHed is in the production of low fat dried meat ingredients for further processed items. Its apphcation in fresh meat is less successful because the fresh meat contains relatively high levels of moisture (50). 

Natural Products. Various methods have been and continue to be employed to obtain useful materials from various parts of plants. Essences from plants are obtained by distillation (often with steam), direct expression (pressing), collection of exudates, enfleurage (extraction with fats or oils), and solvent extraction. Solvents used include typical chemical solvents such as alcohols and hydrocarbons. Liquid (supercritical) carbon dioxide has come into commercial use in the 1990s as an extractant to produce perfume materials. The principal forms of natural perfume ingredients are defined as follows the methods used to prepare them are described in somewhat general terms because they vary for each product and suppHer. This is a part of the industry that is governed as much by art as by science. 

FoodApphca.tlons, Carbon dioxide, a nontoxic material, can be used to extract thermally labde food components at near-ambient temperatures. The food product is thus not contaminated with residual solvent, as is potentially the case when usiag coaveatioaal Hquid solveats such as methylene chloride or hexane. In the food iadustry, CO2 is not recorded as a foreign substance or additive. Supercritical solvents not only can remove oils, caffeiae, or cholesterol from food substrates, but can also be used to fractionate mixtures such as glycerides and vegetable oils iato aumerous compoaeats. 

Removing an analyte from a matrix using supercritical fluid extraction (SEE) requires knowledge about the solubiUty of the solute, the rate of transfer of the solute from the soHd to the solvent phase, and interaction of the solvent phase with the matrix (36). These factors collectively control the effectiveness of the SEE process, if not of the extraction process in general. The range of samples for which SEE has been appHed continues to broaden. Apphcations have been in the environment, food, and polymers (37). 

Separation Techniques. Current methods for separating fatty acids are by solvent crystaUi2ation or by the hydrophili2ation process. Other methods that have been used in the past, or perhaps could be used in the future, are panning and pressing, solvent extraction, supercritical fluid extraction, the use of metal salts in assisting in separation, separations using urea complexes, and adsorption/desorption. 

Analytical Supercritical Fluid Extraction and Chromatography Supercritical fluids, especially CO9, are used widely to extrac t a wide variety of solid and hquid matrices to obtain samples for analysis. Benefits compared with conventional Soxhlet extraction include minimization of solvent waste, faster extraction, tunabihty of solvent strength, and simple solvent removal with minimal solvent contamination in the sample. Compared with high-performance liquid chromatography, the number of theoretical stages is higher in... 

Unfortunately, not much experimental work has been carried out on the combination of Supercritical fluid extraction and liquid chromatography systems (43, 44). One of the reasons for this arises from the difficulties in achieving compatibility between the extraction solvent and the FC mobile phase. Baseline perturbations have been... 

Ionic liquids have been described as designer solvents [11]. Properties such as solubility, density, refractive index, and viscosity can be adjusted to suit requirements simply by making changes to the structure of either the anion, or the cation, or both [12, 13]. This degree of control can be of substantial benefit when carrying out solvent extractions or product separations, as the relative solubilities of the ionic and extraction phases can be adjusted to assist with the separation [14]. Also, separation of the products can be achieved by other means such as, distillation (usually under vacuum), steam distillation, and supercritical fluid extraction (CO2). 

In some cases, the solids themselves are subjected to extraction by a solvent. For example, in one process used to decaffeinate coffee, the coffee beans are mixed with activated charcoal and a high-pressure stream of supercritical carbon dioxide (carbon dioxide at high pressure and above its critical temperature) is passed over them at approximately 90°C. A supercritical solvent is a highly mobile fluid with a very low viscosity. The carbon dioxide removes the soluble caffeine preferentially without extracting the flavoring agents and evaporates without leaving a harmful residue. 

Braga et al. ° compared the efficiencies of several processes, i.e., hydrodistillation, low pressnre solvent extraction, and Soxhlet and supercritical fluid extraction. For each process, the inflnences of several parameters (duration, temperature, nature of solvent) were also evalnated. These authors concluded that the Soxhlet method performed with ethanol/isopropanol 1/100 v/v for 2 hr and 30 min was the most effective. Snn et al. nsed solid phase extraction to concentrate (nine times) a... 

General trends are focused on reduced-solvent extractions or adsorption-based methods — enviromnentaUy friendly solvents for both solid and liquid samples. In recent decades, advanced techniques like supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), ° pressurized liquid extraction (PLE)," microwave-assisted extraction (MAE), ultrasound-assisted extraction, countercurrent continued extraction (www.niroinc.com), solid... 

Supercritical fluid extraction — During the past two decades, important progress was registered in the extraction of bioactive phytochemicals from plant or food matrices. Most of the work in this area focused on non-polar compounds (terpenoid flavors, hydrocarbons, carotenes) where a supercritical (SFE) method with CO2 offered high extraction efficiencies. Co-solvent systems combining CO2 with one or more modifiers extended the utility of the SFE-CO2 system to polar and even ionic compounds, e.g., supercritical water to extract polar compounds. This last technique claims the additional advantage of combining extraction and destruction of contaminants via the supercritical water oxidation process."... 

Shen, S. et al.. Comparison of solid-phase microextraction, supercritical fluid extraction, steam distillation, and solvent extraction techniques for analysis of volatile consituents in Fructus amomi, J. AOAC Int., 88, 418, 2005. 

Bergeron, C. et al.. Comparison of the chemical composition of extracts from Scutellaria lateriflora using accelerated solvent extraction and supercritical fluid extraction versus standard hot water or 70% ethanol extraction, J. Agric. Food Chem., 53, 3076, 2005. 

Supercritical fluid extraction (SEE) is another modern separation technology usually employed to extract lipophilic compounds such as cranberry seed oil, lycopene, coumarins, and other seed oils. Anthocyanins generally and glycosylated anthocyanins in particular were considered unsuitable for SEE due to their hydrophilic properties, since SEE is applicable for non-polar analytes. However, a small amount of methanol was applied as co-solvent to increase CO2 polarity in anthocyanin extraction from grape pomace. New applications of SEE for anthocyanin purification have been reported for cosmetic applications from red fruits. ... 

Teng, W.Y., Chen, C.C., and Chung, R.S., HPLC comparison of supercritical fluid extraction and solvent extraction of coumarins from the peel of Citrus maxima fmit, Phytochem. Anal, 16, 459, 2005. 

Mantell, C., Martinez de la Ossa, E., and Rodriguez, M., Supercritical fluid extraction of anthocyanins from grape pomace, in Solvent Extraction for the 21st Century, Cox, M., Hidalgo, M., and Valiente, M., Eds., Barcelona, Spain, 1999. 

Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) is a technique in which a supercritical fluid [formed when the critical temperature Tf) and critical pressure Pf) for the fluid are exceeded simultaneously] is used as an extraction solvent instead of an organic solvent. By far the most common choice of a supercritical fluid is carbon dioxide (CO2) because CO2 has a low critical temperature (re = 31.1 °C), is inexpensive, and is safe." SFE has the advantage of lower viscosity and improved diffusion coefficients relative to traditional organic solvents. Also, if supercritical CO2 is used as the extraction solvent, the solvent (CO2) can easily be removed by bringing the extract to atmospheric pressure. Supercritical CO2 itself is a very nonpolar solvent that may not have broad applicability as an extraction solvent. To overcome this problem, modifiers such as methanol can be used to increase the polarity of the SFE extraction solvent. Another problem associated with SFE using CO2 is the co-extraction of lipids and other nonpolar interferents. To overcome this problem, a combination of SFE with SPE can be used. Stolker et al." provided a review of several SFE/SPE methods described in the literature. 

Extraction of residues from soil samples is much more difficult than their extraction from plant or water samples. The pesticide residues in the soil exist often in several forms as bound residue , which may affect the extraction efficiency of pesticides from the soil. Then, various extraction methods such as organic solvent extraction, Soxhlet extraction, sonication extraction, microwave dissolution and supercritical fluid extraction (SEE) are used. Some extraction methods are described in the following. 

Specific extraction methods are used to prepare the analyte for immunoassay by freeing the analyte fromboth specific and nonspecific interferences. Supercritical fluid extraction has been used to decrease the amount of solvent waste generated. Solid-phase extraction has gained popularity, and many different supports are available. One promising extraction and concentration method is immunoaffinity chromatography, which will be addressed later. 

Soxhlet extraction Ultrasonic disruption Supercritical fluid extraction Accelerated solvent extraction... 

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