Knez, Zeljko. SUPERCRITICAL FLUIDS: SOLVENTS OF FUTURE?
University of Maribor, Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Smetanova 17, SI-2000 Maribor, Slovenia (zeljko.knez@uni-mb.si)
Biocatalysis will be in the future efficient way of producing fine chemicals. The advantages of using supercritical carbon dioxide as a medium for enzymatic catalyzed reactions will be well documented by several examples. Limitations of the process arise from the non-polarity of carbon dioxide, but advances on the development of novel surfactants allow dissolution of hydrophilic and hydrophobic materials in CO2. This has made it possible to consider the use of CO2 as a solvent in a wide variety of manufacturing processes. On the other hand several other gasses (freone R23, propane, butane, dimethly ether, SF6) are used in the last time in our Lab. An overview of various types of HP enzmatic reactors used in our Lab as well as expected developments in the field will be presented.