Construction of Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE) Equipment!

Supercritical fluid technology stands for processes that are performed at temperature and pressure either near or above the critical point of a substance. One of the most popular applications in 1970 was supercritical fluid extraction, which is also known as gas extraction. This is because of the use of CO2 at temperature and pressure above the critical point. For several applications, this supercritical fluid technology is worthwhile at the industrial scale. Through this blog, you will learn about the construction of SFE Equipment.

Equipment setup:

In equipment setup, the first step is constructing supercritical fluid extraction 0.1L unit is gathering of the component support structure. Moreover, the mainframe of supercritical fluid extraction 0.1L contains 4 pieces of 800mm, 5 pieces of 710 mm, and 7 pieces of 510 mm. These pieces units are attached to the primary structure and the two steel plates are designed based on the previous design. After that, all of the components are located with the objective of easy accessing the extractor, valve panel, separator, and process indicator. 

Equipment validation:

Two raw materials, annatto, and sweet fennel are used to validate the equipment. The annatto is used to validate the extraction line without a separator. On the other hand, fennel is used to validate the extraction monitored by separation.

 

Extraction and separation

The extractor of critical fluid extraction 0.1 unit has a volume of 100 mL and an internal diameter relationship of 19. However, the two separators have a 90 mL volume, with a lateral entrance equipped with thermocouples that reach half the height of the cylinder. And permit estimates of the good boundary conditions and the temperatures at the central points of the cylinders. The extract masses are weight, and the yield after extraction is calculated as the mass of extract divided by the mass of dry basis. Overall extraction curve, which is cumulated mass of extract against the time of extraction and it can interpreted as containing three stages: 

• The constant extraction rate period

• The falling extraction rate period 

• The diffusion-controlled period

Moreover, the overall extraction curve is adjusted to the spline model containing straight three lines. The funnel extraction is obtained at 200 bar and 313k according to the procedure with a flow rate of 12g/min and S/F of 10. The condition of the first separator is (80 bar, 312 k) and the condition of the second separator is (20 bar, 279K). After one hour of extraction, the extracts are stored at 255 K for late analyses. 

Lastly

After reading the above information, you will be able to understand the construction of critical Fluid extraction equipment and its working process & working conditions. Hopefully, the information shared through this post will help you a lot regarding SFE Equipment. If you have any queries or questions, feel free to contact us in the comment box. We will definitely resolve your problem shortly. For more informative and innovative blogs, stay connected with us. Happy searching!

Read More

Supercritical Fluid Chromatography: The pros and cons of SFC

Chromatography plays an essential role within the cannabis space. In various applications, it is hard to extract the oil from the cannabis plant. And the fundamental cannabinoids and other compounds that make up these oils are required to be further separated from each other. In testing, this is true where you want to look at the presence of each compound present individually. Moreover, it is also relevant for product manufacturers looking to create Cannabidiol oil or Tetrahydrocannabinol isolates from broad-spectrum cannabis oils. Through this blog, you will read about Supercritical Chromatography along with its pros and cons.

How it works

The method of Supercritical fluid chromatography at presently adopted by the cannabis community. In the setup, there is a hybrid between supercritical CO2 extraction and HPLC chromatography. A chromatography column filled with a solid silica based stationary phase is used to pass the cannabis extract in SFC and it separates into its constituent parts that are analyzed and collected. But not like High-Performance Liquid Chromatography, the mobile phase that transfers the extract through the apparatus is not liquid solvent.

The pros and cons of SFC

Operationally, supercritical fluid chromatography is similar to High-Performance Liquid Chromatography, but the SFC method comes with some very unique benefits. Supercritical CO2 has some unique properties that make it a very powerful solvent, as those familiar with CO2 extraction will already be aware. These fluids have the density of a liquid, the viscosity of the gas, and also diffusion constant that sits approximately between those two matter states.

CO2 also comes with the benefits of being a chemically inert and non-flammable solvent, therefore it can be safely mixed with a little amount of other co-solvent in order to make a solvent with an ideal polarity. At room temperature, it exists in gaseous form and there is no risk of remaining solvents being present in the separated cannabinoid fractions, as the carbon dioxide will naturally evaporate at room temperature. 

Supercritical Fluid Chromatography has some unique advantages in terms of technologies, as compared to high-performance liquid chromatography and other novel chromatography technologies. The solid silica-based stationary phase will last for approximately 100 to 1000 runs with HPLC and flash chromatography. On the other hand, centrifugal partition chromatography exclusively uses a liquid stationary phase, which can mostly be recycled and exist as an improvement on the durability of HPLC. SFC systems can run thousands of cycles before parts need to change due to the novel properties of the supercritical fluid solvent. The accessibility of SFC equipment is one of the largest limitations nowadays for the cannabis industry. But at present, only a handful of technology suppliers produce supercritical fluid chromatography systems appropriate for academic and analytical purposes.

Concluding words

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that supercritical liquid chromatography plays an important role in the cannabis industry. It has the potential to become a real heavy-hitter in the world of industrial-scale CBD isolate production if the technique can lift itself out of its relative obscurity within the cannabis sector. Hopefully, the information shared in this blog regarding SFC will be more beneficial for you according to your search. Feel free to reach out to the official website of Thar Process if you want more information. Happy searching!

Read More