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SuperFluids™

SuperFluids™ are based on advanced liquid-liquid technology using supercritical or near-critical fluids. These fluids are gases at ambient temperature and pressure conditions. As shown in the attached figure, a pure component compound enters its supercritical fluid region at conditions which equal or exceed both its critical temperature and critical pressure.  These parameters are intrinsic thermodynamic properties of all stable pure component compounds. Carbon dioxide, for example, becomes supercritical at conditions equal to or exceeding 31° C and 1,050 psig. In these supercritical or near-critical fluid regions, normally gaseous substances such as carbon dioxide become dense phase fluids, which exhibit greatly enhanced solvating power.  At a pressure of 3,000 psig and a temperature of 40 ° C, carbon dioxide has a density around 0.8 g/cc and behaves very much like hexane, a very nonpolar organic solvent since carbon dioxide has a dipole moment of zero debyes.

Process specificity and control are easily manipulated - small temperature and/or pressure changes can change solubility by an order of magnitude or more. These unique features facilitate product recovery, the "fine tuning" of solvation power, and the separation of mixed products. The selectivity of nonpolar supercritical fluid solvents can be further enhanced by the use of small molar concentrations of polar entrainers or cosolvents, such as ethanol. In addition, SuperFluids™ can exhibit a liquid-like density and at the same time, gas-like properties of diffusivity and viscosity. The latter increases mass transfer rates, significantly reducing processing time. Ultra-low surface tension properties of SuperFluids™ allow increased biomass penetration and improved product yields.

Supercritical fluid technology is well established in other industries such as the decaffeination of coffee and hops extraction. Strategic advantages of SuperFluids™ in natural therapeutic manufacturing are: working solvents are readily removed, without leaving toxic residual traces; production times decrease as much as 10- to 100-fold because of unique physicochemical properties; amenability to either batch or continuous processing; and scalability with resulting economical benefits.