Waters' Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE) systems

Waters' Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE) systems extract chemical compounds using supercritical carbon dioxide instead of an organic solvent. SFE allows you to extract compounds without altering the taste, aroma, or chemical composition of your product. SFE is an ideal tool for a range of applications in pharmaceutical, chemical, and food research laboratories, including flavor testing, desolvation within tablets, natural oil, herb, and spice extracts, decaffeination, and testing for contaminants, such as pesticides and herbicides. Manipulating the temperature and pressure of CO2 allows the material of interest to be selectively extracted. The result is an extract with superior purity and yield, and lower operating costs, as compared to traditional hydrocarbon-based solvent extraction systems. As a tunable solvent, CO2 is non-toxic, non-flammable, and physiologically compatible. This translates into a reduction in post–processing steps, clean–up and safety measurements. Additionally, because CO2 processing requires low temperatures, there is less deterioration of heat sensitive components in the extract. Choose from solvent–free pilot to lab–scale supercritical fluid extraction systems. Users can operate in a static, pressure control mode or a dynamic flow control mode. Options range from 100 mL up to 10 L. Models can include co–solvent pump, fractionation, and recycling. Learn More.