1. Development of Environmentally-Friendly Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Extraction Technologies

As a supercritical fluid or near-critical liquid it can be a reasonably good solvent for extractions and separations and has received significant attention as an environmentally benign solvent to replace hazardous organic compounds. We have developed the designs of several processes that use CO₂.

f. Dimethylformamide Manufacture from Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

Most of the current methods for the production of DMF use carbon monoxide, which is flammable and highly toxic, as well as liquid organic solvents which are undesirable due to their flammability, toxicity, and disposal costs. The method discussed here uses supercritical carbon dioxide as both a reactant and the reaction medium.

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Joseph A. Shaeiwitz
Department of Chemical Engineering
West Virginia University
P.O. Box 6102
Morgantown, WV 26506-6102
Phone: 304-293-2111 ext.2410
Fax: 304-293-4139
email: shaeiwit@cemr.wvu.edu

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