Decontamination of hazardous substances from solid matrices and liquids using supercritical fluids extraction: a review.

Supercritical fluid has been adopted as an extraction media to remove various kinds of substances from distinct types of solid matrices since three decades ago. Compared to conventional extraction mode, supercritical fluid extraction technology is preferred because of the flexibility in adjusting its dissolving power and inherent elimination of organic solvent which means reducing time and money needed for subsequent purification. Utilization of this method as an environmental remedial technology, however, has become a trend only after its accomplishment in analytical chemistry was acknowledged. This review tries to summarize in a comprehensive manner the multitude aspects involved in hazardous compounds removal from miscellaneous class of environmental matrices. The industrial adsorbent regeneration using supercritical fluid technology is also discussed. Although, this technology has been successfully realized for environmental remediation in laboratory and on pilot-plant scale, its commercialization attempts still lack significant technology improvement in order to reach the economic feasibility.