Supercritical adsorption equilibrium has a significant role in defining supercritical adsorption behavior. In this paper, the adsorption equilibrium of citric acid from supercritical CO2/ethanol on a cyano column was systematically investigated with the elution by characteristic point method. Equilibrium loading was obtained at 313.15 K and 321.15 K with supercritical CO2/ethanol densities varying from 0.7068 g.cm(-3) to 0.8019 g.cm(-3). The experimental results showed that the adsorption capacity of citric acid decreased with increasing temperature and increasing density of the supercritical CO2/ethanol mobile phase. The adsorption equilibrium data were fitted well by the Quadratic Hill isotherm model and the isotherms showed anti-Langmuir behavior. The monolayer saturation adsorption capacity of citric acid is in the range of 44.54 mg.cm(-3) to 64.66 mg.cm(-3) with an average value of 56.86 mg.cm(-3). (C) 2015 The Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, and Chemical Industry Press. All rights reserved.