Thar Process

What Thar Process does

Thar Process, Inc. is a Pittsburgh-based, privately held industrial technology company that engineers, manufactures, and operates supercritical CO2 extraction (SCFE) and supercritical chromatography (SFC) purification systems, founded in 1980 (with marketing claiming "since 1990") by Dr. Lalit Chordia. The company's two flagship product lines — the SUPERFAST™ extraction systems (ranging from gram-scale 2x9 units to industrial 2x1650 systems with up to 5,000 kg/day capacity) and the ISOLATOR™ SFC purification systems (SFC 10/20/60, up to 80 kg/day) — are complemented by Isolator™ column media, the patent-pending WinterFlow™ in-line winterization technology, and a newly launched line of CO2 bulk delivery systems. All equipment is engineered and manufactured in-house in Pittsburgh, where the company also operates an NSF cGMP, USDA Organic, Kosher, and Halal certified facility that supports contract toll processing and process development services.

The company monetizes through four revenue streams: one-time capital equipment sales (SUPERFAST™ and ISOLATOR™ systems), consumable column media, professional toll/processing services at its cGMP Pittsburgh facility, and process development / R&D services. Customers are enterprise buyers across four verticals — pharmaceutical (API extraction, chiral separation, impurity remediation), food and nutraceutical (impurity removal, defatting, certified-organic processing), cosmetics (essential oils, botanical extracts), and cannabis/hemp (CBD purification, THC remediation, minor cannabinoid isolation). With 440+ cumulative clients across five continents, 51–100 employees, and a full executive team including CEO Dr. Chordia, CFO Greg Imberlina, CRO/President Todd Palcic, and three VPs, the company sells primarily through direct enterprise field sales with quote-based pricing.

Operationally, Thar Process holds a portfolio of certifications (cGMP, USDA Organic, Kosher, Halal, UL, CE, ASME, CSA) that materially de-risk pharmaceutical and food-grade customer adoption. The company has expanded its product surface incrementally since 2007 — when it commissioned the world's largest industrial SFC-600 system now operating in Malaysia — into toll processing (2012), cannabis/hemp with WinterFlow (2019), process-scale HPLC/SFC equipment (2020), pharmaceutical-focused R&D (2021), and CO2 bulk delivery (2026). Subsidiaries Thar Energy LLC, UpCycle Ingredients, and UpCycle Beverage Company (all wholly owned, registered trademarks) suggest a staged vertical integration toward branded ingredient and beverage products.

Name

Thar Process

Legal name

Thar Process, Inc.

Website

https://tharprocess.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1980

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Thar Process engineers and manufactures supercritical CO2 extraction (SUPERFAST™) and supercritical chromatography purification (ISOLATOR™ SFC) systems, plus toll processing services, for enterprise customers in pharmaceutical, food/nutraceutical, cosmetics, and cannabis/hemp industries from its cGMP-certified Pittsburgh facility.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Pittsburgh

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. SFE Extraction Equipment Sales: Sale of SUPERFAST™ supercritical CO2 extraction systems ranging from lab-scale (2x9, 2x25) to industrial-scale (2x120, 2x360, 2x720, 2x1650) with capacities from 120 kg/day to 5,000 kg/day.
2. SFC Purification Equipment Sales: Sale of ISOLATOR™ supercritical chromatography purification systems including Isolator SFC 10, 20, and 60 models with purification capacities from 4 kg/day to 80 kg/day, plus column media products.
3. Tolling/Processing Services: Contract processing services using supercritical CO2 as solvent on industrial scale from cGMP certified Pittsburgh facility. Allows customers to access extraction/purification capabilities without capital equipment investment.
4. Process Development Services: R&D, feasibility testing, pilot testing, technical-economical assessment, and analytical services for process development from concept to market.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Thar Process engineers, manufactures and sells supercritical CO2 extraction (SUPERFAST™) and supercritical chromatography purification (ISOLATOR™ SFC) systems, along with CO2 bulk delivery and Isolator™ column media products. It complements equipment sales with toll processing and contract process development services from its cGMP-certified Pittsburgh facility for pharmaceutical, food/nutraceutical, cosmetics and cannabis/hemp customers.

Product overview

Thar Process is a technology platform company offering supercritical CO2 extraction (SUPERFAST™ product line: 2x9, 2x25, 2x120, 2x360, 2x720, 2x1650) and supercritical chromatography purification (ISOLATOR™ SFC product line: SFC 10, SFC 20, SFC 60) equipment ranging from gram-scale to multi-ton industrial capacity. The portfolio is complemented by Isolator™ Column Media for chromatography applications, CO2 Bulk Delivery Systems for pressure regulation, and toll processing/process development services. The company operates an FDA-audited GMP facility in Pittsburgh and serves pharmaceutical, food, cosmetics, and cannabis/hemp industries.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• SUPERFAST: Line of supercritical CO2 extraction systems for natural products and remediation applications, available in various capacities from 2x9 to 2x1650 models.
• Isolator SFC Systems
• Isolator Column Media
• WinterFlow

Products and services

• SUPERFAST™ Extraction Systems (2x9, 2x25, 2x120, 2x360, 2x720, 2x1650) Supercritical CO2 and sub-critical water extraction systems for solids (batch) and liquids (counter-current), spanning gram-scale R&D (2x9/2x25), pilot/industrial (2x120), and large industrial process equipment (2x360, 2x720, 2x1650) for pharmaceutical, food/nutraceutical, cosmetics, hops/hemp, coffee/tea decaffeination, polymerization, sterilization and DHA production.
• ISOLATOR™ SFC Purification Systems (SFC 10, SFC 20, SFC 60) Preparative supercritical fluid chromatography systems using CO2 as the main mobile phase for separating and isolating high-value chiral, achiral and bio-molecules, plus concentrated natural products such as Omega-3s, terpenes, flavonoids, flavors and fragrances; available for contract R&D and cGMP processing at Thar's Pittsburgh facility.
• Isolator™ Column Media Chromatography column media products for use with ISOLATOR™ SFC systems, including Isolator™ X for cost-sensitive R&D, XX-HFT for minor separations and THC remediation, XXX for high-throughput THC remediation, and XXXX for unique research applications.
• CO2 Bulk Delivery Systems CO2 bulk delivery and pressure-boosting systems for indoor SFC and SFE lab equipment from various manufacturers (Waters, Shimadzu, Teledyne), targeting pharmaceutical scientists operating chromatography and extraction instruments.
• Processing Services (Tolling) Contract toll processing using supercritical CO2 as solvent on an industrial scale at Thar's FDA-audited cGMP Pittsburgh facility to obtain clean natural oils for pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and food customers who want extraction and purification without investing in capital equipment.
• Process Development Services Comprehensive process development services including first industrial trials, R&D, feasibility/pilot tests, analytical/quality assessments, technical-economical evaluation and toll manufacturing, supporting customers from concept to market scale-up.

Quantifiable outcome

• 2-hour cycle times for extraction processes
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Waters CorporationminorOthers · 13 February 2026Waters acquired Thar Instruments (original developer of CO2 bulk delivery systems) in 2009 and subsequently discontinued its standard CO2 bulk delivery solution. Thar Process identified this as a market gap and launched new CO2 bulk delivery systems to fill the void, targeting Waters SFC equipment users among others.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves10 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Cytiva (Danaher): Global bioprocess and chromatography solutions provider within Danaher, offering preparative chromatography systems and services comparable to Thar's process-scale SFC and HPLC purification offerings in pharma/biopharma.
• Agilent Technologies: Large analytical instrument and chromatography company whose preparative SFC and LC systems compete with Thar's Isolator line at the pharma API and natural products purification level. Broader portfolio, but overlapping customer base in pharma/food analytical and process chromatography.
• Teledyne Technologies: Diversified industrial and scientific instrumentation company whose analytical instruments compete with Thar's SFC and SFE equipment in pharma and food labs. Explicitly named by Thar as a target customer for its CO2 Bulk Delivery Systems, indicating direct technology adjacency.
• Bühler Group: Swiss industrial solutions provider serving food, feed, and mobility with large-scale extraction and processing equipment. Comparable to Thar's industrial SUPERFAST systems for food/oilseed applications, though operates across a much broader process equipment portfolio.

Direct peers

• Waters Corporation: Global analytical instrument leader that develops and sells supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) systems directly competing with Thar's Isolator SFC product line. Waters is the reference competitor named in Thar's CO2 Bulk Delivery Systems go-to-market, having acquired the original Thar Instruments in 2009.
• Shimadzu Corporation: Major Japanese analytical instrument manufacturer offering SFC and chromatography platforms used in pharmaceutical and food labs. Explicitly called out by Thar as a target customer base for its CO2 Bulk Delivery Systems, indicating direct technology overlap and competition.
• Apeks Supercritical: US manufacturer of CO2 extraction systems focused on cannabis, hemp, and botanical oils, overlapping with Thar's SUPERFAST 2x120-2x720 range. Directly comparable on technology and target customers in cannabis/hemp extraction.
• Separex (Nova-Tech International): Specialist in industrial supercritical fluid extraction and chromatography systems, comparable to Thar in pharma API, natural products, and toll processing applications. Competes directly in process-scale SFE/SFC equipment.
• Eden Labs: US-based manufacturer of supercritical CO2 extraction systems serving cannabis, hemp, food, and nutraceutical customers. Direct competitor to Thar's SUPERFAST product line in mid-market and craft extraction deployments.
• Supercritical Fluid Technologies: Specialty US manufacturer of supercritical CO2 extraction equipment for research and small-to-mid scale production. Closely comparable to Thar on core SFE technology and customer verticals (food, pharma, nutraceutical, cannabis).

Market position

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks1 record

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/incthar

Compliance9 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Subsidiaries3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Thar Process