All of current research in supercritical CO2 (scCO2) is focused on reactions which can be carried out potentially more cleanly in scCO2 than in conventional solvents, and which have the potential to be exploited on a commercial scale.
Most of our current studies have focused on continuous reactions because these generally offer a more cost-effective route to scale up. Schematically our reactors are very simple:
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The latest versions of our reactors are automated with on-line analysis.
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This enables us to explore rapidly a wide range of reactions parameters (temperature, pressure, flow rates etc) for the example of the value of this reactor see “Hydrogen-Catalyzed Dehydrogenation; a Supercritical Conundrum.” (J. R. Hyde, B. Walsh and M. Poliakoff) Angew. Chem. Intl Ed. Eng. (2005) 44, 7588-7591. Current research includes: hydrogenation, hydroformylation, acid catalysed reactions and biocatalysis.
Our research in CO2 has been supported by the EPSRC EU Marie Curie Program, EU FP5, Astra Zenaca, Croda, Uniqema, The SI Group and in particular Thomas Swan and Co Limited who have scaled up the results of our research to a commercial scale.
We always welcome e- mails to martyn.poliakoff@nottingham.ac.uk from those interested in this area or who would like reprints of papers.