Gas-expanded liquids and near-critical fluids are tunable solvent media for conducting chemical reactions, separations, and materials processing. In recent years, there has been an expanding body of fundamental and applied research in the use of these media, particularly for applications to sustainable processes based on the principles of green chemistry and engineering. This volume spans research and development activities ranging from theoretical and experimental investigations of the fundamental science underlying the field to developmental aspects of the technology for commercial applications. An introduction and overview of the field is included, as well as both new developments and reviews organized in the general topical areas of thermodynamics and transport properties (including both experimental and modeling studies), reactions, and materials processing. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first such compilation in this field with contributions from leading research groups.

About the Author:
Keith Hutchenson is a Research Fellow in DuPont Central Research and Development and is located at the DuPont Experimental Station in Wilmington, DE. His research interests include supercritical fluid technology, chemical process development, and reaction engineering, and he has worked on a number of process development projects in several DuPont business units during his 22-year career with DuPont.

Aaron Scurto is an Assistant Professor and DuPont Young Professor in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Kansas. His research interests include phase equilibrium thermodynamics, homogeneous catalysis, solvent effects on reactions and materials processing, particularly in supercritical fluids and ionic liquids.

Bala Subramaniam is the Dan F. Servey Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering and the Director of the Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis, a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center, at the University of Kansas. He has held visiting Professorships at ETH in Zurich, Switzerland and the University of Nottingham, UK. His research interests are in catalytic reaction engineering, crystallization, and exploiting supercritical fluids and gas-expanded liquids for benign chemicals processing.