Supercritical fluids cleaning

With over three years invested in the development and qualification of the supercritical cleaning process, the next phase of the implementation plan was cleaning of production hardware. The two key operations which had been identified early on as potential applications were the cleaning of end housings and the removal of bulk amounts of damping fluids from fill system fixturing. 

Cleaning Supercritical fluids such as CO9 are being used to clean and degrease quartz rods used to produce optical fibers, produc ts used in the fabrication of printed circuit boards, oily chips from machining operations, and precision bearings in militaiy applications, and so on. Here, CO9 replaces convention chlorocarbon or chlorofluorocarbon solvents. 

Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) and Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) are excellent alternatives to traditional extraction methods, with both being used independently for clean-up and/or analyte concentration prior to chromatographic analysis. While SFE has been demonstrated to be an excellent method for extracting organic compounds from solid matrices such as soil and food (36, 37), SPE has been mainly used for diluted liquid samples such as water, biological fluids and samples obtained after-liquid-liquid extraction on solid matrices (38, 39). The coupling of these two techniques (SPE-SFE) turns out to be an interesting method for the quantitative transfer... 

A method which uses supercritical fluid/solid phase extraction/supercritical fluid chromatography (SE/SPE/SEC) has been developed for the analysis of trace constituents in complex matrices (67). By using this technique, extraction and clean-up are accomplished in one step using unmodified SC CO2. This step is monitored by a photodiode-array detector which allows fractionation. Eigure 10.14 shows a schematic representation of the SE/SPE/SEC set-up. This system allowed selective retention of the sample matrices while eluting and depositing the analytes of interest in the cryogenic trap. Application to the analysis of pesticides from lipid sample matrices have been reported. In this case, the lipids were completely separated from the pesticides. 

SPECIAL MELTING AND PROCESSING TECHNOLOGIES edited by G. K. Bhat SUPERCRITICAL FLUID CLEANING edited by John McHardy and Samuel P. Sawan... 

High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has been by far the most important method for separating chlorophylls. Open column chromatography and thin layer chromatography are still used for clean-up procedures to isolate and separate carotenoids and other lipids from chlorophylls and for preparative applications, but both are losing importance for analytical purposes due to their low resolution and have been replaced by more effective techniques like solid phase, supercritical fluid extraction and counter current chromatography. The whole analysis should be as brief as possible, since each additional step is a potential source of epimers and allomers. 

Hinman et al. [492] have compared SFE and ASE in the extraction of antioxidants from LDPE. Comparable extraction yields were obtained with both techniques. However, sample clean-up was necessary after ASE , while with SFE the extract could be analysed directly without any post-extraction clean-up. Supercritical fluid extraction of 15 polymer additives (AOs, UVAs, process lubricants, flame retardants and antistatic agents) from eight PS formulations was compared to dissolu-tion/precipitation extractions [557], Additive recoveries were comparable. Numerous additional comparisons can be found under the specific headings of the extraction techniques (Sections 3.3 and 3.4). 

J. McHardy and S.P. Sawan (eds), Supercritical Fluid Cleaning. Fundamentals, Technology and Applications, Noyes Publications, Westwood, NJ (1998). 

Supercritical fluids also find application in the areas of pollution prevention and remediation, and supercritical carbon dioxide is used as a replacement solvent for many hazardous solvents in both extraction and separation processes and also as a reaction medium and in materials processing. Although carbon dioxide is considered as a greenhouse gas , there is actually no net increase in the amount of the gas if it is removed from the environment, used as the solvent instead of a hazardous substance, and returned to the environment. In this way, most of the uses of supercritical carbon dioxide may be considered as environmentally friendly. Because the solubilities of oils and greases in carbon dioxide are high, it is particularly suited to the cleaning of machinery 47 and, as discussed in the literature 48, it is used as a solvent in textile dyeing operations where it is used to treat any dye-laden... 

SEE has long been of industrial importance but has only recently been introduced on a laboratory scale. Few applications have been reported for polyphenols but simpler phenolics have been extracted by this method, albeit with addition of methanol to the supercritical fluid. Some potential may be found for online SFE, since very clean extracts (but at low extraction efficiency for phenolic compounds) can be obtained. ... 

An automated supercritical fluid extraction and in-line clean-up system has been developed for organochlorine and organophosphate pesticide residues contained in fats (Hopper, 1999). 

Suitable gases in the form of supercritical fluids represent clean solvents/ carriers, which neither leave residues nor impose an environmental load. A number of factors determine the solubility of polymers in supercritical carbon dioxides (SCCO2) and these are given in Table 3.1. 

Dry cleaning. Supercritical CO 2 fluids technology is proposed for dry cleaning wool by Global Technologies. 

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