A Seminar on

Prepared by: Guided by:

Jignesh B. Mr. P.B.
Malavia Vanzara

01CH20
What is supercritical fluid ?
Supercritical fluid region is define as the area
above the critical temperature and critical pressure.
 Properties of supercritical fluid

Somewhere between a gas and a liquid.

Physical properties Gases SCF liquid
Density gm/cc 0.001 0.2-1.0 0.6-1.6
Diffusivity cm2/sec 0.1 0.001 0.00001
Viscosity gm/(cm sec) 0.0001 0.001 0.01

•SCF has more liquid like density and salvation strength

•Transport properties i.e. viscosity and diffusivity ,that are more
like gases
 Critical properties for common supercritical fluid.
solvent Critical Critical pressure Density
temp. oc MPa
MP gm/cc
ethylene 9.3 5.04 0.22
Xenon 16.6 5.84 0.12
Carbon dioxide 31.1 7.38 0.47
Ethane 32.2 4.88 0.20
Nitrous oxide 36.5 7.17 0.45
Propane 96.7 4.25 0.22
Ammonia 132.5 11.28 0.24
n-nutane 152.1 3.80 0.23
n-pentane 196.5 3.37 0.24
Isopropanol 235.2 4.76 0.27
Methanol 239.5 8.10 0.27
Toluene 318.6 4.11 0.29
Water 374.2 22.05 0.32
 CO2 as a supercritical fluid.
•Critical temp. :31.1°c
•Critical pressure :73.8 bar

•Low cost, chemically stable, non-flammable &non toxic.

•SFCO2 is being increasingly applied as an environmental friendly

Substitute for many organic solvent.

 Water as a supercritical fluid.

•Critical temp : 374°c
•Critical pressure : 220 bar

•Can dissolve oxygen and nonpolar organic compound.

Process application
•Microelectronics manufacturing.
-semiconductor fabrication
•Polymerization.
-fluorinated vinyl monomer such as tetrafluro ethylene.
-SCCO2 has ability to plasticize polymer
-SCCO2 is also used as a foaming agent
•Food industries.
-extraction of α acid from hops.
-removal of caffeine from coffee.
-extraction and fractionation of fats & oils from food
product.
•Pharmaceutical application
-extraction of vitamin E –from soybean oil & purification
method for vitamin E
 Process application:

•ROSE (residuum oil supercritical extraction ) technology.

•RESS ( rapid expansion from supercritical solution) technology.
•Hydrogenation reaction using super critical CO2.
Waste remediation

Removal of organic contaminant from soil.

Removal of radioactive Plutonium & Americium from soil.
Recovery of Uranium from solid waste.
SCWO to recover Platinum group metal from spent catalyst.
Case study : Supercritical water oxidation
 Summary :
Environmental friendly nature of the supercritical fluid
Leads to its use in the safe and pollution free processes
 Reference

• encyclopedia of chemical engineering.

-kirk othemer
vol. 23 pg. 452-474
•journals
-“chemical engineering world”-October 2003 pg. 84-86

-“chemical engineering world”-December 2003 pg.124

•Web site:

www.chematur.com
www.sciencedirect.com