Teach Supercritical Fluids in YOUR College Lab Free

Reminder... the due date for the 2017 Supercritical Fluid Educational Grant is approaching quickly. 

To win the Spe-ed SFE-Prime for Education package, submit your proposal. 

Proposals should illustrate how the Spe-ed SFE Prime and supporting materials will be used to teach Supercritical Fluids in the post-secondary classroom. 

The focus must be on teaching green chemistry with the Prime system and how SCF can impact business, processes, the environment and the overall green economy. 

Research topics MUST be related to Green Chemistry and environmentally-friendly technology and/or processes. 

Applications should include how the use of the Prime and SCF can educate students about eliminating petroleum-based solvents, pollution or residue; or how SCF can be used in nanotechnology.

Applications are due April 24, 2017. More information about the grant can be found here: http://appliedseparations.com/scf-educational-grant.html

To apply: http://appliedseparations.com/grant-application.html

Pack a Bag and Head to Chicago

It's that time of year again. We're packing our bags and heading to Chicago for Pittcon 2017. Applied Separations will be in Booth 2513. Come visit us and check out our new products for this year.

We're featuring a new supercritical fluid lab instrument, as well as a time and hassle saving product for protein, DNA, and other precipitations. How'd you like to eliminate pipetting from your sample collection? We can show you how.

Waterless Textile Dyeing with Supercritical Fluid

There is a great concern these days about water - do we have enough? How can we consume less? One very large consumer of water is the textile dying industry. 

Traditionally, dyeing of textiles requires that an excess of dye is dissolved or in some way "taken-up" in an aqueous or solvent solution. The dye mix is then pumped into a vat containing holding the textile. Typically there is agitation or the dye is recirculated several times through the cloth. At the end of the cycle, the dye mix is pumped to the waste treatment facility. Dyes are notoriously difficult to treat. The process is decidedly unfriendly to the environment.

Our technique replaces the aqueous or solvent solution with supercritical CO2. 

For more information, check out our affiliated site, eCO2Dye.com

Now Taking Applications for the Annual Educational Grant

Applied Separations' annual educational grant is now accepting applications. The grant, in the form of laboratory equipment, is worth over $30,000, and will be awarded to one college, university, or other higher education institution for the teaching of Supercritical Fluids in their classroom. 2017 marks the seventh year Applied Separations is awarding the grant.

The grant includes a Spe-ed™ SFE-Prime system and vessel designed specifically for the higher education market, as well as supporting classroom materials such as a syllabus, handout, suggested applications, and more.

Interested applicants must submit an approximately 800 word proposal illustrating how the Spe-ed SFE-Prime and supporting materials would be used to teach Supercritical Fluids in the post-secondary classroom.

Submissions are due 4/24/2017. All proposals must be submitted through the Applied Separations website at http://appliedseparations.com/scf-educational-grant.html

The grant will be awarded at the American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Show, June 13 - 15, 2017.

Oil Reduction of Pecans using Supercritical Fluid

In this holiday season, many people use nuts in their baked goods, or keep them on hand to put out at parties. Did you know that supercritical fluid extraction can be used as a natural and healthy way to reduce oil and increase the shelf-life of pecans? True story. 

Click here to view the application note, visit the Foods section of the website, and contact us for more information on how supercritical fluid can improve your food lab's process.

Gas Anti-Solvent to Create Nanoparticles

The pharmaceutical and health care industries are seeking new methods of administering protein powders. 

Traditionally used processes can also inactivate or denature proteins, produce small final yields, lead to electrostatically charged powders, produce particles with a broad size distribution, or rely on large volumes of organic solvent. 

This application describes the precipitation of insulin and lysosomes by the Gas Anti-Solvent method to produce nano-sized particles that retain their chemical activity, are free flowing, non aggregated, and have a narrow particle size distribution.

Click here for the application note: Precipitation of Protein Powders by Gas Anti-Solvent

Contact us for more information.

Naturally Extract Lycopene from Tomato

Lycopene has been shown to be a powerful antioxidant, and preliminary research shows lycopene may be help to prevent heart disease, atherosclerosis, and even breast and prostate cancers. When extracting lycopene, it's important to use a natural method. Supercritical fluid extraction is such a method. Using supercritical fluid extraction eliminates the use of hazardous solvents. 

For more information, see the application note posted on our website: Solvent-Free Extraction of Lycopenes from Tomato By-Products and contact us to see how Applied Separations can help eliminate solvents in your lab.

Extract Oil from Oilseeds without Hazardous Solvents

Eliminate the use of hazardous solvents by replacing the traditional soxhlet method of extraction with supercritical fluid extraction. Applied Separations can help you determine the best system and method to streamline your process.

See the Extraction of Oil from Oilseeds Application Note for an example.

Visit the Supercritical Fluid Systems section of the site to explore the available systems.

Contact Applied Separations with questions and to discuss how we can help.

Subcritical Water Helix Systems Feature 5-Port Caps

Applied Separations Subcritical Water systems feature 5-port vessel caps that are specially designed for use with subcritical water.

Use any of the following with your Subcritical Water Helix system: 

• Temperature and Pressure monitoring devices 
• Mechanical over pressure release 
• Temperature and Pressure monitoring probes

Contact the team at Applied Separations for more information about how a Subcritical Water Helix System can streamline your process.

Replace Ethanol & Polar Solvents in Your Process

Replace ethanol & polar solvents with an inexpensive, non-toxic solution: subcritical water. 

Applied Separations offers the option of using subcritical water with their Helix supercritical systems.  


The Subcritical Water Add-on Module Features:

• Specialty vessel design - safety
• Static and dynamic operation (100 ml/min )
• Temperature: 240^oC (300^oC)
• Pressures: 690 BAR

For more information, visit the Subcritical Water section of the website, or contact Applied Separations. 

Eliminate Problems with Aerogel Drying

Many industries want aerogels for use in thermal insulation, but making them can be tricky. 

Removing the aerogels from the solvent bath for common use is a problem. Because the structure is so fine, normal drying at atmosphere collapses the network into dust. This is from the normal capillary pressure at the liquid/vapor interface on the inside of the pore. Supercritical fluids exhibit much lower surface tension both at the interface to liquids and to the interface at gases. It is this property that allows for the aerogel to be dried without destruction. 

 For more information about using supercritical fluid to solvent the aerogel drying problem, visit the Aerogel section of the website.

Capsicum Oleoresins with Controlled Heat Units

Capsicum Oleoresins are used in many different ways, ranging from food additives, to pharmaceutical applications, to aerosol as a less-than-lethal option in law enforcement. In all of these industries, it's important to keep the capsicum oleoresin as free from impurities as possible.

Capsicum (chili peppers) can be extracted with natural carbon dioxide and the extract separated into a light fraction responsible for “heat” and a heavy fraction containing “color” pigments. Light fractions ranging from 150,000 heat units to 2 million heat units can be produced using this natural fractionation technique. The low capsicum content of raw materials can be concentrated from 0.4% in the raw material to 13.5% in the light fraction using natural CO₂.

For more information about extracting pure capsicum, contact Applied Separations and visit the Essential Oils section of the website. 

Solvent-free Black Pepper Oleoresin Extracts

Black pepper is the most popular spice consumed throughout the world and is known as the King of Spices. 

The oleoresin of black pepper is normally produced by extracting the pepper with organic solvents such as hexane. These techniques can thermally degrade components and produce extracts with residual solvent contamination. 

Carbon dioxide, a natural solvent, can be used to naturally extract and fractionate pepper oleoresins without any toxic residues.  In fact, supercritical carbon dioxide can separate the piperine (pungent fraction) from the essential oil (flavor fraction). The fractions can then be combined to any desired pungency/flavor composition required for specific products. 

Contact us for more information. 

Get a High Color Value from your Paprika Oleoresin

Paprika oleoresin is used as a natural colorant in the food and cosmetic industries. Applied Separations systems can improve your process by concentrating red capsanthin pigment in paprika using a natural CO₂ extraction and fractionation process. 

Typical commercial paprika oleoresins have a color value in the range of 1000 to 2000 ASTA. The natural supercritical CO₂ process can produce oleoresins with a color value over 7000 ASTA. In addition, a light fraction containing paprika flavor components is produced.

Contact us for more information. 

High Recovery Essential Oil Extraction in Less Time

In its supercritical state, CO₂ has both gas-like and liquid-like qualities, and it is this dual characteristic of supercritical CO₂ that provides the ideal conditions for extracting essential oils with a high degree of recovery in a short period of time.

Supercritical CO₂ can replace both petroleum solvents and steam distillation in your extraction process, resulting in higher volume and higher quality extracts. 

View the Essential Oils section of the website and contact us to discuss how Applied Separations can help you make the most of your essential oil extractions.

A Supercritical System for Essential Oils Extraction

The benefits of extracting essential oils with supercritical fluids are many, as shown in the previous posts. But what would a SCF system look like?

Contact Applied Separations for more information about what SCF system would work best for your essential oil application.

Low Temperature Essential Oil Extraction

Steam distillation is used in many current essential oils extractions, but this technique exposes the product to temperatures over 100°C. These high temperatures cause many of the “top notes” to be destroyed or swept away, leaving a greatly reduced, less desirable yield. 

Supercritical CO₂ extraction of essential oils uses temperatures less than body temperature (37°C). Because of this low temperature, little thermal degradation of sensitive compounds occurs. The top notes are retained and the resulting yield is much greater.

View the Essential Oils section of the website and contact us to discuss how Applied Separations can help you make the most of your essential oil extractions.

Keep Your Essential Oils in their Natural State

With supercritical CO₂, you aren't using hazardous solvents. The flavor or fragrance in your extract remains in its unadulterated state. There is no worry that your extract won't be pure. 

With supercritical CO₂, there is no solvent taste or smell in your essential oils, just pure extract. Your lavender smells like lavender.

Visit the Essential Oils section of the website for more information.

No Solvents or Residues in Your Essential Oil Extracts

You want your essential oils to be as pure as possible. You need to get the most extract from your raw material. Supercritical CO₂ can fulfill both those needs. Supercritical CO₂ extracts essential oils more efficiently than petroleum based solvents, and when the CO₂ returns to an ambient state, it becomes a gas, leaving behind no residue to contaminate your extract. 

Contact us for more information about how a supercritical CO2 process can improve your extracts.

Using RESS to Make Particles | Supercritical Fluid

The formation of small nano or micro particles is an area of intense research. Small particles may possess different characteristics than larger molecules of the same substance. For example large ibuprofen particles in a crystalline form are difficult to absorb and are less bio available than smaller particles that can be created using supercritical fluids.

Supercritical fluids are used to create nano particles of drugs and other compounds using several techniques. The RESS technique (Rapid Depressurization of a Supercritical Solution) is used when a compound is soluble in supercritical CO₂. The compound is dissolved in supercritical CO₂ in a pressure vessel and subsequently discharged to atmospheric pressure through a nozzle into a collection chamber. During the rapid depressurization, the compounds are no longer soluble in gaseous CO₂, and they nucleate and precipitate forming many small particles. The particles are separated from the CO₂ gas at atmospheric pressure when the CO₂ gas passes through a filter inside the collector vessel.

Using the RESS technique large crystalline particles of Ibuprofen can be dissolved in supercritical CO₂ and reduced to a multitude of small non crystalline amorphous particles increasing their bio availability without the use of hazardous solvents.

For more information, see the Particles section of the website.