CO2 Extractions at Home

This was one of the organic chemistry labs we conducted. For context, we did steam distillation before. It required a lot of material and heating for over an hour. CO2 extraction is considered a greener method for obtaining essential oils. CO2 is non-flammable, readily available, relatively non-toxic, and easily removable from the product. CO2 is used in industry. Although it is a greenhouse gas, it can be captured and reused. This is still a micro scale. The yield will be quite low due to the small amount of essential oil that is in there anyway. As you will see, there is little to no heating in this experiment, which means there will be a significantly lower chance of oxidation during the extraction process.