Product, Process and Plant Design Using Subcritical and Supercritical Fluids for Industrial Application

Prof. Knez former Dean and is current Vice dean of Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, in the past he was executive rector and vice rector of University of Maribor. He graduated and obtain PhD from Maribor University. Subsequently he made research at University of Wageningen (Netherlands) and University of Erlangen (Germany) in the field of separation processes. In the past he was member of Executive board of European Federation of Chemical Engineering, he was head of WP "High pressure technologies" of EFCE from 2003 to 2010. Prof. Knez established the high-pressure laboratory in year 1985 and today there are 30 researchers working on separation processes and product design. He has issued two patents on his name and a pilot plant was built in Technology park in year 1999 and company with 70 employees and produces today cca. 400 t per year of concentrated nature antioxidative substances (export 99.99 %). With his “spin off” company he acts as a consultant of many industrial projects on high pressure plants world-wide. Prof Knez has published more than 366 scientific articles and review articles, 29 chapters in books and 26 patents. His work has more than 12500 citations and h-index 59. Since 2014 he is member of European Academy of Sciences and Arts, since 2017 he is member of Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts and since 2019 he is member of Croatian Academy of Engineering. Dr. Lütge obtained his degree in chemical engineering from the Technical University of Dortmund, Germany, and his PhD in the same faculty at the Institute of Thermodynamics. During his time at university he focused on process development and scale-up in the field of supercritical fluids. Thereafter he focused on an industrial career starting in engineering and construction at the contractor Uhde. Among various assignments he was responsible as Managing Director and CEO for the affiliateUhde High Pressure Technologies, a leading systems supplier in the global high pressure arena. Under his leadership various high pressure developments were brought to market. Firstly, a process and plant technology for an industrial size plant drying raw lecithin by means of supercritical fluid. Further, process and equipment solutions for high pressure pasteurization, formulation of API using supercritical fluids in commercial scale as well as developments for ultra-high pressure extraction of organic matter. Also in the area of polymers and biopolymers Dr. Lütge contributed through novel process technologies, e.g. for industrial scale production of PLA. During his industrial roles he continuously collaborated with research institutes and universities which results were published through numerous papers, invited presentations at international conferences, and a number of patent filings. Dr. Lütge served as a member of the internal circle within the ProcessNet highpressure chapter. Feel free to contact me with any questions. We are looking forward to hearing from you.

• Introduction.- What are properties of Subcritical and Supercritical Fluids?.- Industrial scale applications, Physical-based processes.- Industrial scale applications: Reaction-based processes.- Design of high pressure plants for research, pilot and production scale.- Safety and control in high pressure plant design and operation.- Conclusion and future perspectives.