What is superfluid critical extraction?
Many gases at the correct temperature and pressure form fluids with unique solvent properties. Most common is the ability of carbon dioxide (CO2) to form a liquid at moderate pressure at room temperature. The liquid CO2 can then be used as an extraction solvent to remove compounds of interest from a ground up plant or other material. Once the plant material is extracted with the liquid CO2, the solvent is quickly removed simply by returning the sample to normal pressure such that the CO2 becomes a gas and leaves the extracted compounds behind. Since liquid CO2 has solvent properties that are different from other liquids, it has unique applications where often it can extract compounds difficult to recover using more traditional solvents.
