Final Activity Report Summary - SUPERGREENCHEM (Green chemistry in supercritical fluids: phase behaviour, kinetics and scale-up)
SUPERGREENCHEM is a Marie Curie Research Training Network in the area of sustainable chemistry. It assembled 14 partners from all over Europe. Their main achievement was to provide the adequate framework and environment for the training of 22 young researchers in methods and techniques that may help the Chemical Industry to continue to produce valuable substances and materials in cleaner and more sustainable ways. Its study focus was carbon dioxide and water in supercritical conditions, that is, in conditions where they can, in the future, replace many of the currently used volatile organic solvents.
The Network research programme contributed to overcome some of the technological obstacles that still impede the widespread use of those supercritical sol vents. Several types of important chemical reactions were studied, including reactions with gases (hydrogenation, oxidation with oxygen, hydroformylation), polymerisations, reactions catalysed by enzymes, and reactions in ionic liquids, novel and fashionable substances that combine well with supercritical fluids. Their study was carried out mostly in conditions where different phases (gas and liquid) are present, and their equilibrium behaviour was therefore a controlling parameter of the rates and yields of the reactions.
The Network research programme contributed to overcome some of the technological obstacles that still impede the widespread use of those supercritical sol vents. Several types of important chemical reactions were studied, including reactions with gases (hydrogenation, oxidation with oxygen, hydroformylation), polymerisations, reactions catalysed by enzymes, and reactions in ionic liquids, novel and fashionable substances that combine well with supercritical fluids. Their study was carried out mostly in conditions where different phases (gas and liquid) are present, and their equilibrium behaviour was therefore a controlling parameter of the rates and yields of the reactions.