supercritical extraction AND toxicity AND natural products?

Answer 1

Supercritical Extraction means using a "supercritical fluid" as a solvent. The most common example of a supercritical fluid is high-pressure Carbon Dioxide CO2. As CO2 is heated and pressurized, it changes from a gas, to a liquid, and then to a "supercritical fluid" which is heavy like a liquid, but dispersed like a gas.

Supercritical CO2 can be used in a pressure chamber to extract natural oils from natural plant material. When the CO2 is cooled and depressurized, the separated extracted oil will condense out.

The more common way to extract natural oils is to use toxic solvents, but CO2 is "non-toxic" and in some ways friendlier to the environment.

A problem with CO2, however, is that it helps cause global warming (another topic altogether), so it is important to re-capture the CO2 gas and not simply vent it into the atmosphere.

Answer 2

yes you can use liquid N2 to extract things from plants. it's the easiest way of doing it sometimes

Answer 3

what???????