Supercritical carbon dioxide technology development at Loyalist College fosters community support and business inovation

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The overall objective of this proposal is to enhance the applied research capacity at Loyalist College, specifically within the Supercritical CO2 Fluid Extraction (SC-CO2) Applied Research Laboratory. The SC-CO2 laboratory has contributed invaluable industry research and continues to respond to industry drivers as consumer demands for higher quality products and more sustainable practices increase. The SC-CO2 laboratory provides the local region with access to state-of-the-art technology in extraction and analysis capabilities, however is not operating as efficiently as required to keep up with industry requests. The SC-CO2 laboratory at Loyalist College is the only college in Canada that houses this level of technology and provides industry with access to this equipment and expertise that is capable of solvent free "green" extraction and analysis with applications in the natural health product, food, pharmaceutical and agricultural sectors. In the short term, projects focused on hops, edible insects, and bioactive natural products will be investigated using SC-CO2 methods to generate high quality, solvent free extracts for product development and commercialization. Long term goals include advancing our capacity to respond to the needs of community partners with increasingly innovative solutions. Located in the Quinte region, the established food industry and expanding natural farming sector will allow for local and regional collaborations with the wine, cider and craft brewing industry, and a variety of natural product focused SME's to assist in product development for commercialization. With this grants' support, Loyalist College will be in a better position to move forward with our applied research strategic plan, which will provide additional opportunities for faculty, staff, and students to engage with community partners and local small and medium enterprises (SME's) to work toward providing solutions for real world challenges through shared inquiry, innovation, and technology.