1. Development of Environmentally-Friendly Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Extraction Technologies

As a supercritical fluid or near-critical liquid, it can be a reasonably good solvent for extractions and separations and has received significant attention as an environmentally benign solvent to replace hazardous organic compounds. We have developed the designs of several processes that use CO₂.

a. Extraction of Ginger Oleoresin from Ginger Root using Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

Batches of ginger root are extracted using supercritical carbon dioxide. The ginger oleoresin is recovered by flashing to below supercritical pressure. A key component of this project is mass transfer modeling of the batch contactor to determine contact times.

This process would be an interesting one-semester design project. Material available on this project includes a project report, PFDs, economic optimization results and P&IDs. Instructors can obtain this information by contacting Professor Shaeiwitz.

CLICK HERE to obtain an Adobe Acrobat file about this project.

Joseph A. Shaeiwitz
Department of Chemical Engineering
West Virginia University
P.O. Box 6102
Morgantown, WV 26506-6102
Phone: 304-293-2111 ext.2410
Fax: 304-293-4139
email: shaeiwit@cemr.wvu.edu
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