This article describes the extraction of coal raw material with an homologo
us series of low molecular mass alcohols in the supercritical state. The ex
traction system used was projected and built in the Institute of Chemistry
of Sao Carlos. Because the system has low cost and is easy to handle, it pr
esented very good results.
The extraction yields obtained with the alcohols ranged from 32 to 46%, the
highest yield was obtained with ethanol. Supercritical fluid extraction sh
owed to be an efficient extraction technique, and the use of ethanol has se
veral advantages since it is a relatively low toxicity solvent, of low cost
, and abundant in Brazil. Chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques were
used to characterize the extracted materials.