Precipitation Processes with Supercritical Fluids: Patents Review

Supercritical fluid techniques for materials precipitation have been proposed as an alternative to conventional precipitation processes as they can improve the performance of these processes in terms of reduction of particle size and control of morphology and particle size distribution, without degradation or contamination of the product. These techniques have received much attention during the last years, and their feasibility and performance have been proved for many substances. Several precipitation technologies, in which the supercritical fluid plays different roles (solvent, anti solvent, co solvent, solute, atomization agent…) have been developed. This article presents a review of the patents related to supercritical precipitation technologies, with emphasis on the description of the different precipitation methods and mechanisms exploited by these technologies, and on the technical solutions given for the practical problems of the technologies.