Supercritical Fluid Extraction In The Undergraduate Laboratory

Thermodynamics experiments are often an overlooked component in the chemical engineering undergraduate laboratory curriculum. This is in part due to the expense of necessary equipment and also due to the length of time and degree of precision required to perform experiments to demonstrate textbook principles. At Missippi State University, a major portion of the renovation effort over the past six years has been the development and incorporation of experiments focusing on emerging technologies such as supercritical fluid extraction, Students can best be exposed to these technologies in a laboratory setting. Supercritical fluid extraction requires the use of phase equilibrium principles and thus, experiments focusing on this technology provide exposure both to its use as an emerging separations technology and to the underlying thermodynamic relationships.