Recent Advances in Eco-Friendly Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Fractionation Techniques for Food Applications

Supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO₂) fractionation has emerged as an environmentally friendly technique for selective separation of valuable food compounds in a wide range of industrial applications. This review emphasizes the importance of recent advancements and trends in SC-CO₂ fractionation as an eco-friendly technology by conducting a systematic analysis of SC-CO₂ fractionation studies published between 2020 and 2024. This study grouped the SC-CO₂ fractionation efforts into three primary strategies: sequential extraction, multistage fractionation, and selective extraction. Various raw materials have been identified as suitable for producing value-added food products using the SC-CO₂ fractionation strategies. These include agricultural byproducts like sea buckthorn pomace and spent coffee grounds, marine residues such as sardine waste, industrial byproducts like bioethanol lipids and vacuum petroleum residue, as well as botanical sources, including hemp residues and clary sage concrete. These materials were fractionated to recover a wide range of high-value compounds, such as lipids, polyphenols, terpenes, carotenoids, and essential oils, highlighting the adaptability of SC-CO₂ to complex and diverse matrices. The findings reveal some trends linking raw materials, targeted compounds, and fractionation strategies. For instance, multistage fractionation dominated the recovery of lipids and antioxidants, whereas selective extraction was preferred for terpenes, cannabinoids, proteins, and specific fatty acids. Sequential methods were commonly employed for bioactive compounds in complex systems. This separation method and product-oriented approach provide insights into SC-CO₂’s efficiency in isolating bioactive materials for food, nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, and environmental applications.