According to textbook definitions1, there exists no physical observable able to distinguish a liquid from a gas beyond the critical point, and hence only a single fluid phase is defined. There are, however, some thermophysical quantities, having maxima that define a line emanating from the critical point, named ‘the Widom line’2 in the case of the constant-pressure specific heat. We determined ...

In food and chemical industry, supercritical fluid extraction is an environmental-friendly separation technique, which plays an important role in biomaterial processing. In this paper, a dynamic optimisation model for supercritical fluid extraction is proposed by combining a transformation based genetic algorithm and the Peng-Robinson equation of state. The proposed dynamic model for the relati...

We have developed a method of forming platinum (Pt) nanoparticles using a metal organic chemical fluid deposition (MOCFD) process employing a supercritical fluid (SCF), and have demonstrated the synthesis of dispersed Pt nanoparticles on the surfaces of carbon nanowalls (CNWs), two-dimensional carbon nanostructures, and carbon nanotubes (CNTs). By using SCF-MOCFD with supercritical carbon dioxi...

The use of polymers in the modern pharmaceutical industry is quite wide and needs a lot of different information. One of the more recent applications is the impregnation of a polymeric system with a drug using as carrier a supercritical fluid. This process is based on dissolving the active principle in a supercritical fluid, the supercritical solvent swells and reduces the glass transition temp...

Dry-grind technology has become the dominant method for ethanol production. During drygrind ethanol production, roughly one-third of the dry grain mass resides in the dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) as by-products (i.e., ∼0.8 kg/L ethanol). The energy content residing in the 0.8 kg DDGS is about 20 MJ, compared to the consumption of 1 MJ electricity and 10 MJ thermal energy for pro...

In this first of two articles, we discuss some issues surrounding the dissolution rate enhancement of poorly-soluble active ingredients micronized into nano-particles using several supercritical fluid particle design processes including rapid expansion of supercritical solutions (RESS), supercritical anti-solvent (SAS) and particles from gas-saturated solutions/suspensions (PGSS). Experimental ...

Electrospinning or electrostatic fiber spinning is an emerging technology that requires electric fields for the formation of non-woven materials that can be used in clothing, highperformance filters, separation membranes, scaffolds in tissue engineering, reinforcement in composite materials, templates for the preparation of functional nanotubes, and many others applications [1]. Polycaprolacton...

Supercritical fluid extraction using carbon dioxide modified with methanol, methanol-diethylamine, or methanol-triethylamine was used to extract vinblastine from the aerial portions of Catharanthus roseus. An HPLC-electrospray ionization (ESI)/MS analysis method was also developed to quantify the alkaloids in these extracts. Of the supercritical solvents evaluated, carbon dioxide-methanol-triet...

Carbon dioxide can be used in its liquid (near critical) or supercritical fluid state as a replacement for conventional cleaning solvents, reducing the pollution associated with the operations that would otherwise require significant amounts of volatile organic compounds, ozone depleting substances, or hazardous air pollutants. The results of several near critical/supercritical parts cleaning a...