Supercritical Fluid Extraction at Ultra-High Pressures

Pilot Plant 2L, PN-2000

Extraction with supercritical fluids under high pressures has been used successfully since many years on an industrial scale, and Uhde HPT has been the leading plant constructor for this application. Mainly carbon dioxide is used at pressures of 80 to 700 bar to obtain very pure extracts from natural matter.

Laboratory tests showed that for a number of interesting products the solubility and hence the yield increase with pressures beyond 1,000 bar. This discovery motivated the process engineers of Uhde HPT to develop jointly with Prof. Knez of the University of Maribor a pilot plant for extraction at up to 2,000 bar. First surprising and promising results have been presented at the 5th international symposium on high pressure process technology in Segovia.