Supercritical fluids: Towards environment friendly processing

The dissemination of volatile organic compounds and aqueous waste streams into our environment has prompted a world wide concern. Environmental issues and the stringent rules of the regulatory authorities in this regard are now of paramount importance to the chemical/pharma industry. To sustain itself in the next millennium, the industry must be able to conform to more environmentally sound practices in the manufacture and processing of products. The supercritical fluids, supercritical carbon dioxide in particular, being environmentally benign, hold an immense premise as a useful replacement for organic solvents in chemical and biomaterial manufacture and processing. This article briefly reviews the major applications of supercritical fluids in various pharma and biomaterial processing.