Novel Ingredients from Seaweed Extracts (NISE)

CO₂ Extraction

A Sustainable Extraction Technique

Carbon dioxide is generated from many everyday activities, and is a by-product in the chemical and brewing industries. The recent growth in the production of biofuels such as bioethanol means that a sustainable supply of high purity CO₂ is now readily available. As a solvent CO₂ is universally considered as a clean, green solvent (cheap, non-toxic, non-flammable, recyclable) and can be used for the preparation of “organic” extracts in many countries. In addition, CO₂ is tasteless, odour free and does not leave residues in the extract or extracted material, making is suitable for food, personal care or nutraceutical based applications.

Precise Targeting

Extraction can be carried out using CO₂ in a liquid or supercritical state and the choice largely depends on the solubility of the molecules to be extracted. Liquid CO₂ is significantly less polar than supercritical CO₂ and is applicable only to small, non-polar molecules. In the supercritical state CO₂ is a highly tuneable solvent and the manipulation of temperature and pressure allows selective extract of a wide range of molecules. Supercritical CO₂ has low surface tension and viscosity and therefore high mass transfer rates can be achieved, providing ideal conditions for extracting compounds with a high degree of recovery in a short period of time and with easy separation of products.

CO2 Extraction

CO₂ Extraction