The North-West University (NWU) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) officially opened the continent's first supercritical fluid extraction laboratory and pilot plant at the Bio-Beneficiation Systems Laboratory of the DTI Centre of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing at the NWU’s Potchefstroom campus.
The green technology, which made use of supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2) as the solvent, was used to safely extract essential oils, flavourings and other compounds used in the cosmetics, food and medicinal extract industries.
As a result of the relatively low temperatures involved and the fact that CO2 was used as the solvent, the compounds were extracted without thermal damage or adding harmful chemicals.
The NWU said the R4-million pilot plant would assist South African companies localise and commercialise this technology.
“This technology will enable the beneficiation of an enormous range of raw materials and, thus, contribute to economic growth through industrialisation and job creation, all the while opening a door for consumers to gain access to preservative-free, reasonably priced organic products,” said DTI Advanced Manufacturing chief director Nomfuneko Majaja.
NWU Faculty of Engineering Dean Professor LJ Grobler added that the plant offered numerous opportunities for the extraction of various compounds from indigenous plants.
“Previously, if a company was investigating an opportunity, pilot plant tests and trials had to be performed at facilities overseas. The establishment of the pilot plant at the NWU – the first of its kind in Africa – enables companies to do the pilot scale tests at a fraction of the cost of doing it overseas,” he said.
As the plant was a scaled-down version of large production extraction plants, all results obtained during trials on the pilot plant were directly scalable to big production plants.