Applied Separations is meeting the growing, world-wide commitment to a cleaner, greener environment. Environmentally friendly Supercritical Fluid (SCF) technology works with today's innovative, easy-to-use systems from Applied Separations. Your students will be leading tomorrow's green process using no petroleum solvents and no toxic residue. Click here to find out how you can win a Spe-ed SFE-Prime system for your college classroom and lab.
Applied Separations and eCO2Dye have developed a waterless textile dyeing process and equipment for dyeing. The process uses carbon dioxide as the solvent for dyeing as opposed to water as the medium in conventional dyeing. In addition to the supercritical fluid systems for waterless textile dyeing, the Applied Separations / eCO2Dye team has also developed additional technology to support your dyeing operations: • 60 - 90 minute dyeing cycle depending on color • Selection of disperse dyes that work well in our process. Create a palette of colors with these dyes. • Color database for your use • Use color match capability • Dyed polyester meets AATCC tests Visit the textile dyeing section of the Applied Separations site, and the eCO2Dye site for more information.
Water, water, everywhere, but not enough to drink, as the saying goes... or to use for the myriad of other things. The world is running out of water faster than people would like to admit, and industry is a large part of the problem. But imagine if one could eliminate water from an industrial process like, say, dyeing textiles, and still maintain the color standards that the fashion industry demands! Today, that can be done. It's possible now to use supercritical CO2 to dye textiles without water. Click here to find out more!
scCO2 for Scouring :
Cleaning of yarns and fabrics done prior to dyeing or printing
Production of yarns and converting
these into fabrics by weaving or knitting processes requires use of various
oils, waxes, lubricants and other additives to facilitate in the fabrication
steps. The processing aids are removed from the textile to obtain high
quality dyeing or printing on the textile. Processing aids are used for all
textile materials – natural and man-made, though they may differ chemically
depending on the material.
To learn more about using
supercritical fluids to process textiles, visit the eCO2Dye site.
A
supercritical fluid (SCF) is any substance above its critical temperature and
pressure; the fluid has the properties of both gas and liquid while not
exhibiting a distinct liquid or gaseous phase. Thus, an SCF is,
• Dense like a liquid
to dissolve materials
• Has low viscosity,
high diffusivity, no surface tension like a gas
Carbon dioxide is the
most commonly used supercritical fluid and becomes supercritical at 31oC
and 74 BAR. There are many applications for scCO2, including decaffeination of coffee,
extraction of natural products, and waterless textile dyeing.
Carbon dioxide is environmentally
friendly, non-toxic and in our case most of the CO2 is internally
recycled with very little vented to the atmosphere. scCO2based operations represent a very
“green” technology.
eCO2Dye, in conjunction with Applied Separations, has developed a color database which may be used in the Datacolor ColorMatch Software used with their line of Supercritical CO2 systems for waterless textile dyeing.
Now you can use our color match capability on yarn, thread, fabric, and garments while using CO2 to dye your fiber without water. The eCO2Dye system obtains excellent color matching with as many as 4 dyes, allowing users to meet the strict demands of the fashion industry. Visit www.eco2dye.com for more information.
eCO2Dye, in conjunction with Applied Separations, Dingo Ltd, and Halide Group Inc, has developed a waterless textile dyeing process and equipment for dyeing. The process uses carbon dioxide as the solvent for dyeing as opposed to water as the medium in conventional dyeing.
Our Process for dyeing polyester offers the following advantages versus conventional dyeing in water
Hexane is a commonly used solvent in natural products and essential oil extractions, but hexane has been categorized as a hazardous air pollutant by the US EPA, and is included on their list of toxic chemicals.
Despite best efforts, facilities using hexane may leak up to 6,000 pounds of hexane a day into the atmosphere. In addition, extracts will contain undesirable hexane residue.
The solution: Supercritical Fluid extractions.
After its discovery, the first large scale use of supercritical fluids in extracting natural products was the decaffeination of coffee. Since then, many industries have made the switch to supercritical fluid. Producers of essential oils are finding supercritical fluids to be an excellent replacement for traditional methods that use hazardous chemicals.
Solvent Free extracts created with supercritical fluids are found in foods, fragrances, herbal extracts, natural medicines, aromatherapy… and the list goes on.
For more information about how supercritical fluid can improve YOUR process, visit the Essentials Oils section of the Applied Separations website.
Whether you’re extracting fragrances for perfumes or foods, you want the highest quality extract with the least chemical residue. Using supercritical fluid to extract your fragrances is the way to accomplish this with no hazardous chemicals.
Fragrance compounds are volatile molecules that have an odor or aroma. They are low molecular weight compounds and are found in food, wine, spices, flowers and many natural products. These volatile essential oils are composed of esters, terpenes, cyclic terpenes, aromatics, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones and lactones. All of these compounds are readily soluble in supercritical CO2 at low temperatures and low pressures.
The use of essential oils has become "essential" for modern living. Essential oils can be primary ingredients in perfumes for cosmetics or soaps and detergents. They form the basis of the spices in our foods. Essential oils are the base for aromatherapy.
What if there was a way to extract essential oils quickly and efficiently, without compromising the quality of the extract? There is. Supercritical carbon dioxide.
With supercritical fluids:
No Solvent residue. No health hazard. Maintains a "natural" state.
Mild Extraction Conditions – 31°C temperature
Fractionation - easy using only CO2 - CO2 is a "tunable solvent" – easily change your temperature/pressure to suit your material
Supercritical CO2 can also be used in conjunction with more traditional methods such as soaking perfume feedstocks in an organic solvent for a period of time. The organic solvents containing the extracted the perfumes (essential oils) and accompanying waxes is then decanted and evaporated, leaving a concrete. The essential oils can easily be separated from the wax with supercritical CO2. Because of the low temperature, the process gives high recoveries.
Click here to see an example of a supercritical system for the extraction of essential oils.
Hexane is a commonly used solvent in natural products and essential oil extractions. But Hexane has been categorized as a hazardous air pollutant by the US EPA, and is included on their list of toxic chemicals. Despite best efforts, facilities using hexane may leak up to 6,000 pounds of hexane a day into the atmosphere. In addition, extracts will contain undesirable hexane residue.
The solution: Supercritical Fluid extractions.
Supercritical Carbon Dioxide extracts essential oils more efficiently than petroleum based solvents. More importantly, upon returning to an ambient state, the CO2 becomes a gas, leaving no residue. Flavors and fragrances are left in their unadulterated states. Essential oils extracted with supercritical fluids leave no solvent taste or smell.
Sometimes supercritical CO2 is used in conjunction with more traditional methods such as soaking perfume feedstocks in an organic solvent for a period of time. The organic solvents containing the extracted the perfumes (essential oils) and accompanying waxes are then decanted and evaporated, leaving a concrete. The essential oils can easily be separated from the wax with supercritical CO2. Because of the low temperature, the process gives high recoveries.
Can I use Supercritical Fluid to process MY Essential Oil?
Short answer: Yes!
Supercritical fluid is a “tunable” solvent, meaning...
Manipulate the pressure and change the density. Change the density, and you change the solvating power.
Change the solubility characteristics of supercritical CO2 to suit your needs.
Sunflower seeds? Yes. Lavender? Yes.
Vanilla? Yes.
Coffee beans? Yes.
Cinnamon? Yes.
Ginger? Yes.
Jasmine? Yes.
Kava Kava? Yes.
Patchouli? Yes.
Rose Hip Seeds? Yes.
St. John’s Wort? Yes.
…and the list goes on and on.
Supercritical Fluids are environmentally friendly and cost effective, but they can’t possibly work for extracting essential oils, can they?
YES.
Supercritical fluid is an excellent, non-toxic way to replace hexane in your essential oil extraction process. Supercritical fluid can be used at a lower temperature than steam distillation (95 to 100 degrees F vs 140 to 212 degrees F for steam distillation) – perfume extracts will keep their top notes!
We learned in elementary school about water, gas, liquid, and plasma states, but there is another – Supercritical!
Carbon dioxide is in its supercritical fluid state when both the temperature and pressure equal or exceed the critical point of 31°C and 73 atm (see diagram). In its supercritical state, CO2 has both gas-like and liquid-like qualities, and it is this dual characteristic of supercritical fluids that provides the ideal conditions for extracting compounds with a high degree of recovery in a short period of time.
By controlling or regulating pressure and temperature, the density, or solvent strength, of supercritical fluids can be altered to simulate organic solvents ranging from chloroform to methylene chloride to hexane. This dissolving power can be applied to purify, extract, fractionate, infuse, and recrystallize a wide array of materials.
Because CO2 is non-polar, a polar organic co-solvent (or modifier) can be added to the supercritical fluid for processing polar compounds. By controlling the level of pressure/temperature/modifier, supercritical CO2 can dissolve a broad range of compounds, both polar and non-polar.
It's not a gas... it's not a liquid... so what does supercritical fluid look like, anyway?
Applied Separations vessels are available with 5-port lids that allow for the addition of a fiber optic probe to view the inside of the vessel during your process.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published their “12 Principles of Green Chemistry” originally published by Paul Anastas and John Warner in Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice (Oxford University Press: New York, 1998) http://www.epa.gov/gcc/pubs/principles.html
Applied Separations’ supercritical fluid extraction systems fall in line with these 12 principles. In the coming weeks, we will be briefly addressing each of these points.
Green Chemistry Principle Prevention
EPA
Applied Separations
It is better to prevent waste than to treat or clean up waste after it has been created.
Applied Separations SCF systems prevent waste by using supercritical CO2. The use of supercritical CO2 greatly reduces (if not eliminates) the use of hazardous chemicals. If fewer chemicals are used, there are less hazardous waste disposal concerns.
Applied Separations is meeting the growing, world-wide commitment to a cleaner, greener environment. Environmentally friendly Supercritical Fluid (SCF) technology works with today's innovative, easy-to-use systems from Applied Separations. 
Production of yarns and converting
these into fabrics by weaving or knitting processes requires use of various
oils, waxes, lubricants and other additives to facilitate in the fabrication
steps. The processing aids are removed from the textile to obtain high
quality dyeing or printing on the textile. Processing aids are used for all
textile materials – natural and man-made, though they may differ chemically
depending on the material.
Carbon dioxide is the
most commonly used supercritical fluid and becomes supercritical at 31oC
and 74 BAR. There are many applications for scCO2, including decaffeination of coffee,
extraction of natural products, and waterless textile dyeing.
After its discovery, the first large scale use of supercritical fluids in extracting natural products was the decaffeination of coffee. Since then, many industries have made the switch to supercritical fluid. Producers of essential oils are finding supercritical fluids to be an excellent replacement for traditional methods that use hazardous chemicals.
Short answer: Yes!
Lavender? Yes.
Supercritical Fluids are environmentally friendly and cost effective, but they can’t possibly work for extracting essential oils, can they?
Posts
