Patent ID: 8747673

Claim:
A method of recovering a nonpolar solvent from a fluid volume, comprising: removing at least one nonpolar compound from a feedstock to form a fluid volume comprising a nonpolar solvent and the at least one nonpolar compound; after removing the at least one nonpolar compound from the feedstock, subjecting the fluid volume to an expanding gas at a pressure at or near a critical point thereof such that the nonpolar solvent and the expanding gas form a gas-expanded solvent comprising the nonpolar solvent and the expanding gas and such that the nonpolar solvent separates from the at least one nonpolar compound; removing the at least one nonpolar compound from the gas-expanded solvent comprising the nonpolar solvent and the expanding gas; and reducing at least one of the pressure and a temperature of the expanding gas to recover the nonpolar solvent.