The 4th cohort visited the Wrocław Technology Park to visit the supercritical fluid extraction lab and get introduced to 3D printing technologies. To ensure everyone had an up-close and interactive experience, students were split into two smaller groups. 

The introduction to 3D Printing session provided an overview of manufacturing. SBBE students got a general understanding about how Computer-Aided Design models are exported and run through slicing software to generate paths for the printer. They also observed the actual printing process, where materials are heated and extruded layer by layer to build complex geometric shapes. Lastly, they discussed how 3D printing is utilized in various industries for prototyping, custom tooling, and manufacturing complex parts that traditional methods cannot achieve.

The second session, so supercritical CO₂ Extraction, shifted the focus from mechanical engineering to chemical processing. Students were introduced to the science and machinery behind supercritical fluid extraction. They learned how carbon dioxide, when held at specific high temperatures and pressures, enters a “supercritical” state where it exhibits properties of both a liquid and a gas. In this particular case, the lab was extracting active compounds of hop, used for beer production, as well as active compounds from cannabis. By the end of the visit the 4th cohort got a general understanding why this method is highly valued in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food industries for being an eco-friendly, clean, and highly tunable extraction technique.