Abstract.Recently, the utilization of sub and supercritical water has been proposed to recover waste substances from biomass. This is important not only for prevention of environmental issues, but also for rational utilization of natural resources. Sub and supercritical water treatment is one of the most effective methods for this, because water at high temperature and high pressure behaves as a reaction medium with remarkable properties. This sub and supercritical water treatment process can promote various reactions such as oxidation, hydrolysis, and dehydration. Therefore, sub and supercritical water can be used for the conversion of organic wastes to useful chemical compounds, as well as for oxidizing hazardous waste into CO2 or harmless compounds. This paper presents the concepts of sub and supercritical water and their application in organic waste recycling at temperatures of 423 -673 K for substances such as lignin and its derived compounds.

Japanese rice straw, an agricultural by-product, was utilized for the extraction of lignin by hot compressed water at temperatures of 443-503 K and a pressure of 4.0 MPa using a flow-through system, a simple and environmentally friendly extraction method requiring no chemicals other than water. Under these conditions, thermal softening of the Japanese rice straw occurred, allowing the removal of lignin via depolymerization reactions. Lignin as an extraction product was analyzed using utraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectrophotometry. Lignin recovery approached 85 % when the extraction was performed at 443 and 473 K with a flow rate of 4.67 ml min-1. At a constant residence time, recovery amounts increased with increasing flow rate at each temperature. The results suggested that this process may result in an advanced plant biomass components extraction technology.

Abstract. Recently, a simple method for the extraction of lipids from wet biomass using liquefied dimethyl ether (DME) without drying, cell disruption, or heating was proposed. Here, the versatility of this method was evaluated for labyrinthula Aurantiochytrium limacinum (A. limacinum). The liquefied DME was passed through the extractor that filled by A. limacinum at different time intervals. The extraction of lipids from A. limacinum of moisture-rich microorganism was successfully achieved, the yield of lipid was 46.1 wt% of the dry weight of the sample. In comparison, the yields of lipid were 21.3 wt%, 43.6 wt% and 50.7 wt% when supercritical carbon dioxide (SCCO2), hexane-Soxhlet and Bligh-Dyer (BD) extraction methods were applied as extractants, respectively. However, the drying and cell-disruption process were required in SCCO2, hexane-Soxhlet, and BD extraction methods.

Abstract. Recently, ultrasound assisted supercritical fluid is used for extraction the valuable compounds from a number of plant materials as an alternative to conventional method because it can enhance the extraction rate and yield. Curcumin is an important component of turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) with many useful functions to human health. The objective of this study is using ultrasonic assisted supercritical carbon dioxide (USC-CO2) to extract curcumin from turmeric and compared to conventional method. The effect of operating conditions on extraction, including temperature (40-60 o C), pressure (15-25 MPa), extraction time (30-120 min), CO2 flow rate (2-4 mL/min) and percentage of cosolvent (10-20% v/v) were also studied. The result shows that the high extraction yield of 7.17% w/w and curcumin content of 1.69% w/w were achieved at temperature of 50 o C, pressure of 25 MPa, extraction time of 90 min, CO2 flow rate of 3 mL/min with 10% cosolvent. Compared to conventional method, USC-CO2 could provide higher curcumin content in extraction yield in a shorter extraction time. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermal gravity (TG), and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to analyse turmeric undergoing USC-CO2 and conventional extraction and showed that ultrasound could break down the cell walls and remove some functional groups from plant materials, resulting an increase the selectivity of compounds in extraction yield.

A benign process, non catalytic transesterification in sub and supercritical methanol method was used to prepare biodiesel from vegetables oil. The experiment was carried out in batch type reactor (8.8 ml capacity, stainless steel, AKICO, JAPAN)

Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) is used in a wide variety of applications because of its unique chemical and physical features, including its biocompatibility and low toxicity. In this study, hollow PVP/silver nanoparticle (PVP/Ag NP) composite fibers were synthesized. Stable, spherical Ag NPs, with an average size of 14.4 nm, were produced through a facile sonochemical reduction method. A small amount of starch as a potent reducing and stabilizing agent was used during the reduction of Ag ions to Ag NPs. The fabricated Ag NPs were then added to a 10 wt% PVP-dichloromethane (DCM) solution, which was utilized as an electrospinning feed solution under a dense carbon dioxide (CO2) environment at 313 K and 5 MPa and an applied voltage of 15 kV. The dense CO2 enabled rapid extraction of DCM from the PVP-Ag NPs-DCM solution, which was then dissolved into PVP/Ag NPs, resulting in a hollow structure. Scanning electron microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared (FT-iR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), were used to characterize the electrospinning products.

Subcritical water is an environmentally friendly method with a wide range of applications, such as extraction, hydrolysis, and wet oxidation of organic compounds. Here, water at subcritical conditions was applied to extract polysaccharides from Ganoderma lucidum (G. lucidum) and barley grains at 120 -180 o C and 4.0 MPa using a semi-batch system. The liquid products were directly micronized and contacted with hot air to form microsphere particles. During extraction process, cell wall disruptions of G. lucidum and barley grains took place, allowing the removal of the polysaccharides isolating other constituents in G. lucidum and barley grains via autohydrolysis. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images described that the particle products produced had sphere and wrinkled morphology of particles with diameters varying from 1 to 10 µm. The experimental result revealed that the particles formed from G. lucidum and barley grains extract contained 40-45% and 30-35% weight β-glucan, respectively.

Ceria-zirconia mixed oxides have been synthesized by hydrothermal synthesis process. Under hydrothermalconditions, water potential to control the direction of crystal growth, morphology, particle size and sizedistribution, because of the controllability of thermodynamics and transport properties by pressure andtemperature. The synthesis was carried out at temperatures of 150 − 200 oC and pressure of 5 MPa in a batchreactor. The reactor made of SUS 304 tube reactor with internal volume of 8.8 ml. The synthesized productswere calcined and characterized using SEM, XRD and FTIR. The results showed that the particles formed weresphere shaped particles with smooth morphology and the size of particle diameters were 35, 61, and 31 nm onaverage for reactions temperatures of 150, 180, and 200oC, respectively. The XRD pattern indicated thatceria-zirconia mixed powder was uniformly distributed in the structure to form a homogeneous solid solution.