Formulation and evaluation of a new semi-empirical model for solubility of plant extracts in supercritical carbon dioxide assisted by ethanol as co-solvent

An accurate and suitable semi-empirical model is crucial to determine the solubility of plant extracts in supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) assisted by ethanol as a co-solvent. In this paper, a new solubility model was proposed to correlate the plant solubility to SC-CO2 and ethanol. The accuracy and capability of the new model were evaluated by fitting it with published solubility datasets. The overall percentage of average absolute relative deviation was 12.13%, and the average coefficient of determination (R2) was 0.89. Comparisons between the results of the new model and the published models showed an excellent capability and accuracy in fitting solute solubility in SC-CO2 in the presence of ethanol as a co-solvent.