Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Questions about extraction methods

Optimum - 10-11-2019 at 05:41

Hello,

from this list of extraction methods:
- Maceration
- Soxhlet extraction or hot continuous extraction
- Microwave assisted extraction (MAE)
- Ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) or sonication extraction
- Accelerated solvent extraction (ASE)
- Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE)

which ones are considered the best and why?
which one is the simple method?

Thanks

Metacelsus - 10-11-2019 at 05:52

None of them except maceration (and Soxhlet extraction, if you have the apparatus) are simple.

The best one will vary depending on the application.

Why do you ask?

draculic acid69 - 10-11-2019 at 08:50

Depends on what you are extracting.without knowing that there is no answer.

SWIM - 10-11-2019 at 16:22

Are you still trying to extract things from sports drinks?

That would be more like continuous liquid/liquid extraction.

Steam - 10-11-2019 at 17:31

I would say that in terms of what is generally used on an industrial level for a typical extraction (whatever that means), Maceration will be your most common because almost all the other processes will require some sort of liberation to be as efficient as possible and Maceration (at least for soft materials like biological materials) is cheep. Even for harder materials like minerals- some sort of grinding is necessary. I would say that from then it really depends on what you are extracting. Supercrit fluids are nice due to their high efficiency, and can be "boiled" by simply reducing pressure. I believe they are often used for caffeine extraction of coffee, but I am sure you can find plenty of other apps from pharmaceuticals to the production of areogels.

In mineral processing "solvent extraction" is usually a liquid-liquid extraction using an aqueous phase containing impure metal salts (usually copper), and the organic phase is kerosene with a cheating agent that is selective for the target metal. In terms of tonnage, I would wager that this form of solvent extraction (referred to as SX) is the most used world wide.

Some more context for the question would definitely be helpful- we are kind of throwing stuff against the wall and hoping it sticks.

fusso - 10-11-2019 at 18:34

Quote: Originally posted by Steam  
cheating agent
I see what you did there:P

RedDwarf - 11-11-2019 at 07:56

Quote: Originally posted by Optimum  
Hello,

from this list of extraction methods:
-
- Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE)

which ones are considered the best and why?
which one is the simple method?

Thanks


Applied Science has a video on youtube showing a reasonably simple (for him!) supercritical CO2 extraction process, which I've considered looking at in more detail.