Design of a Cost-Reduced Flexible Plant for Supercritical Fluid-Assisted Applications

A novel batch plant for supercritical CO₂ applications is proposed which is not equipped with expensive components, such as high-pressure pumps, making it particularly suitable for bench-scale use. For the first time, the use of a hanging scale is suggested to weigh the amount of CO₂ required for the experiment and the use of the thermodynamics to reach the working conditions. The rig is able to cover different applications, e.g., aerogel drying, impregnation, and extraction, showing high flexibility. An approximate cost analysis has been performed considering as a reference a 150-mL vessel. It has been calculated that both the setup and running costs are considerably lower than the common batch and semicontinuous rigs.