Process synthesis concepts for supercritical gas extraction in the crossover region

Abstract

Abstract A procedure is presented for designing supercritical gas extraction processes using a pure solvent fluid to effect the separation. The necessary conditions for the procedure to be applicable are the existence of crossover behavior and separable crossover pressures in the fluid phase mixture. Data are presented to support the existence of such phenomena in ternary systems, and an actual separation process has been designed and operated based upon the data. For systems exhibiting this behavior, process synthesis principles are developed to illustrate the evolution of a process flowsheet for the separation of a mixture into its pure components.