Supercritical fluid high compressibility

Erequenfly, the term compressed fluid, a more general expression than supercritical fluid, is used. A compressed fluid can be either a supercritical fluid, a near-critical fluid, an expanded Hquid, or a highly compressed gas, depending on temperature, pressure, and composition. 

Although modeling of supercritical phase behavior can sometimes be done using relatively simple thermodynamics, this is not the norm. Especially in the region of the critical point, extreme nonideahties occur and high compressibilities must be addressed. Several review papers and books discuss modeling of systems comprised of supercritical fluids and soHd orHquid solutes (rl,i4—r7,r9,i49,r50). 

The supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) is a process in which a highly compressed gas (fluid) is brought into contact with a relatively non-volatile solid or liquid at temperatures at or slightly above the critical temperature of the solvent. Under such conditions, the condensed phase will begin to volatize, which is interpreted as the supercritical fluid phase (Vayisoglu et al., 1996). The SFE is one of the best methods to obtain hqnid fuels from coals. The SFE extraction is carried out in an autoclave at above the critical temperature and the pressure of the solvent. The yield of soluble material increases with increasing pressure (Paul and Wise, 1971). 

The interest in heat-transfer for high-pressure systems is related to the extraction of a valuable solute with a compressed gas. The compressed fluid is usually a high-pressure gas-often a supercritical fluid, that is, a gas above its critical state. In this scenario, the prevalent heat-transfer mechanism is convection. 

The interest in mass transfer in high-pressure systems is related to the extraction of a valuable solute with a compressed gas. This is either a volatile liquid or solid deposited within a porous matrix. The compressed fluid is usually a high-pressure gas, often a supercritical fluid, that is, a gas above its critical state. In this condition the gas density approaches a liquid—like value, so the solubility of the solute in the fluid can be substantially enhanced over its value at low pressure. The retention mechanism of the solute in the solid matrix is only physical (that is, unbound, as with the free moisture), or strongly bound to the solid by some kind of link (as with the so-called bound moisture). Crushed vegetable seeds, for example, have a fraction of free, unbound oil that is readily extracted by the gas, while the rest of the oil is strongly bound to cell walls and structures. This bound solute requires a larger effort to be transferred to the solvent phase. 

A gaseous pure component can be defined as supercritical when its state is determined by values of temperature T and pressure P that are above its critical parameters (Tc and Pc). In the proximity of its critical point, a pure supercritical fluid (or a dense gas as it is alternatively known) has a very high isothermal compressibility, and this makes possible to change significantly the density of the fluid with relatively limited modifications of T and P. On the other hand, it has been shown that the thermodynamic and transport properties of supercritical fluids can be tuned simply by changing the density of the medium. This is particularly interesting for... 

In supercritical fluids, the possibility of local composition enhancements of cosolvent about a solute suggests that we should see enhancement of anion fluorescence if the water cosolvent clusters effectively about the 2-naphthol solute. Although in liquids the water concentration must be >30% to see anion emission, the higher diffusivity and density fluctuations in SCFs could allow stabilization of the anion at much lower water concentrations provided that the water molecules provide sufficient structure. Therefore the purpose of these experiments was to investigate 2-naphthol fluorescence in supercritical CO 2 with water cosolvent in the highly compressible region of the mixture to probe the local environment about the solute. 

Due to its compressibility in the liquid (near the critical point) and in the supercritical fluid state, the dielectric constant and density, and thus the solvent quality of C02, are tunable with pressure and temperature (Keyes and Kirkwood, 1930). As illustrated in Figure 1.2, this compressibility provides for control of the density and therefore solvent-dependent properties such as dielectric constant and overall solvent strength (Giddings et al., 1968). While supercritical C02 can have high liquidlike densities, it shares many of the... 

SCF). This fluid does not any more have a free surface, that characterizes a liquid as opposed to a vapour, but may serve as a useful solvent just the same. Some substances that are gases at ambient conditions can be compressed by high pressures to become supercritical fluids and solvents, a well-known example being carbon dioxide, used extensively as an extractant for foodstuffs and pharmaceuticals. Some physical properties—the critical temperature Tc, pressure Pc, and density dc—of supercritical solvents are shown in Table 3.3. 

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