Supercritical carbon dioxide can also be used as a more environmentally friendly solvent for dry cleaning as compared to more traditional solvents such as hydrocarbons and perchloroethylene.
Supercritical carbon dioxide is used as the extraction solvent for creation of essential oils and other herbal distillates. Its main advantages over solvents such as hexane and acetone in this process are that it is non-toxic and non-flammable. Furthermore, separation of the reaction components from the starting material is much simpler than with traditional organic solvents, merely by allowing it to evaporate into the air or recycling it by condensation into a cold recovery vessel.