Experimental studies on supercritical fluid separation processes

Abstract

Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) has developed mainly as an industrial-scale extraction technique, independently of the development of high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC), which is a separation analysis method not only contemporary with SFE, but also with a similar history of development. In addition to their use in separation, these two techniques have many things in common from the instrumentation aspect. Both use high-pressure pumps, sample introduction devices, packed or hollow separation columns, etc. Supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC), which uses supercritical fluid as the mobile phase originated from high-pressure gas chromatography. This review considers a selection of the experimental studies performed to develop supercritical fluid separation techniques and the potential applications of these techniques in extraction and chromatography.