Advanced Phytonics Extraction Systems

Chemical Engineering Services

Pehlivan Project is an engineering company specializing in the development of environmentally benign processes for the chemical industry, including the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, aroma and flavoring sectors. A substantial part of our research and development activities are carried out in collaboration with university departments and research institutes in the US, UK and abroad.

In brief, the “Phytonics” technology concerns the use of non-chlorinated fluoro-hydrocarbons (environmentally friendly refrigerant gases) as viable alternatives to conventional organic solvents and supercritical carbon dioxide. A range of these solvents have been developed and are known as Phytosols. They have many environmental and economic attributes, which makes them preferable to conventional organic solvents in a variety of applications.

Advantages Over Organic Solvents

- Non-flammable
- Non-toxic
- Non-corrosive
- Odorless
- Inert
- Highly selective
- Easily modifiable by the addition of co-solvents
- Requires low pressure for liquefaction and minimal heat input for evaporation
- Readily recyclable in situ, eliminates the need for solvent recovery
- Low boiling point means no thermal degradation or loss of volatile compounds during isolation

Advantages Over Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

Equipment engineering costs for the high pressure equipment required for the application of CO2, as a solvent is substantial. This major drawback restricts the use of carbon dioxide to small scale and high value end products. Phytosols on the other hand require much lower pressures for liquefaction, for example, tetrafluoro ethane liquefies at 75 psig while CO2 is only useful as a solvent at pressures well in excess of 1,500 psig.

Low working pressures also mean low operating costs.

Unlike CO2, Phytosols are inert and do not form an acid in the presence of moisture. This widens the scope of applications to include many pharmaceutical products that are pH sensitive. A good example of this is clavulanic acid.