Supercritical Solvent Recovery

Supercritical fluid extraction in food processing, often shortened as SSE or SFE, uses supercritical fluids as a substitute for traditional organic solvents to complete the task of extracting mixtures, however many of these fluids are not food-grade which has severely limited the applications of this technology in the food industry, this issue is currently being tackled by incorporating food-grade CO2 in the process, CO2 can be compressed into a high-density fluid phase and used for extracting soluble components from a variety of natural products used in food manufacturing.

Food-grade CO2 plays a significant role in food processing because of its unique properties, at a standard pressure and temperature superpressure gas is a colorless gas when its temperature and pressure are increased together beyond the critical point high-pressure fluid phase undergoes a physical change and رله الکترونیکی forms a high-density, single, supercritical fluid phase, when this phase is applied to food materials, a higher extraction rate is the result.

In food processing the applications of supercritical CO2, also known as supercritical fluid extraction, are abundant, it is suitable for extracting active ingredients from natural products for use in dietary supplements, food production, and beauty products, some common materials that can be processed with SSE include spices and herbs, citrus peels.

SSE also offers advantages over traditional extraction methods in the food industry such as lower solvent usage efficient energy consumption, it is easy to contain and transport as it doesn't boil and vapor down until really low temperatures, the procedure of processing plant materials with reduced temperatures can help preserve the food quality, including the retention of volatile compounds, unlike other heating or solvent-based extraction processes.

The conventional uses of SSE as a tool within the food industry include the production of convenience foods, extraction of all sorts of additives and herbal extracts, processing spices and herbs for cosmetic products, and possibly the future creation of vegetable meat substitutes. These products can be categorized into three types, consumer convenience foods and beverage food.