Separations are a fundamental unit operation in the development of analytical and industrial processes. Typically, hazardous organic solvents are used to dissolve and extract compounds from solid matrices. The use of these hazardous solvents causes many environmental problems, including the disposal of hazardous waste material and contamination of extracts with trace quantities of solvents.

Supercritical carbon dioxide is a solvent that is generally recognized as safe (GRAS), is non- toxic,inexpensive, and easily available. CO2 is presently used to decaffeinate coffee and replaced the toxic solvent, methylene chloride, in the production of extracts from hops for beer fermentation.

This paper describes the fundamentals of the supercritical fluid extraction process and the implementation of this environmentally friendly, green chemistry technique, using a low cost, student friendly instrument. Examples of experiments easily performed in a teaching environment are described.