ABSTRACT
Worldwide, billions of pounds of organic solvents are used as processing tools, cleaning agents, and dispersants. Due to their specific properties, which overcome the disadvantage of costly high-pressure conditions, supercritical fluids can be proposed as alternative solvents. Supercritical carbon dioxide (SC CO2) which is low cost and nontoxic, and presents intermediate thermodynamic (density, solvent power) and transport (viscosity, diffusivity) properties between gases and liquids easily tuneable with temperature and pressure, is certainly one of the most attractive. Because of its high potentials in the fields of solid and liquid extraction, chromatography, particle formation, dyeing of yarns, and reactions, SC CO2 has been largely used already in food and pharmaceutical areas. Large-scale applications incorporating other kind of compounds can also be found (such as compressed gases like propane and butane in petrol refining).
