Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Joyeux Nöel et bonne nouvelle année 2010!
¡Feliz Navidad y próspero año nuevo!
Zorionak eta urte berri on!
Tuesday, 29 December 2009
Monday, 7 December 2009
SCF-Ex ; cannabis & multiple sclerosis
A recent article states [1]:
Avoiding the use of further solven, with high yields and shorts times [2]
[1]: Shaheen E Lakhan and Marie Rowland; BMC Neurology 2009, doi:10.1186/1471-2377-9-59
[2]: Veress T.; J.Chromatogr. A 668 (1994) 285
Cannabis therapy has been considered an effective treatment for spasticity, although clinical reports of symptom reduction in multiple sclerosis (MS) describe mixed outcomes. Recently introduced therapies of combined delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) extracts have potential for symptom relief with the possibility of reducing intoxication and other side effects. Although several past reviews have suggested that cannabinoid therapy provides a therapeutic benefit for symptoms of MS, none have presented a methodical investigation of newer cannabinoid treatments in MS-related spasticity. The purpose of the present review was to systematically evaluate the effectiveness of combined THC and CBD extracts on MS-related spasticity in order to increase understanding of the treatment's potential effectiveness, safety and limitations.These compounds can be easely extracted by means of supercritical fluid extraction (SCF-Ex) with CO2.
We found evidence that combined THC and CBD extracts may provide therapeutic benefit for MS spasticity symptoms. Although some objective measures of spasticity noted improvement trends, there were no changes found to be significant in post-treatment assessments. However, subjective assessment of symptom relief did often show significant improvement post-treatment. Differences in assessment measures, reports of adverse events, and dosage levels are discussed.
Avoiding the use of further solven, with high yields and shorts times [2]
[1]: Shaheen E Lakhan and Marie Rowland; BMC Neurology 2009, doi:10.1186/1471-2377-9-59
[2]: Veress T.; J.Chromatogr. A 668 (1994) 285
Friday, 27 November 2009
The supercritical fluids and its impact in the new generation of natural additives
The use of food additives is a very old practice. In the past, it was very common to use, for example, salt to preserve fish and meat; sugar to preserve fruits or herbs to improve the food taste. Same as in the past, in the food processing industry the use of additives is much extended.
Food additives are substances intentionally added to food for a technological purpose like colouring, sweetening or preserve a product. The idea behind the use of additives is to avoid deterioration or improve the quality/aspect of the product, and not to become a product of lower quality in a better one.
Food habits are changing constantly and consumers are more and more demanding with food they buy and with its manufacturers. The new food technologies are being rapidly accepted while at the same time consumers request more healthy and natural products. Such products should have high sensory quality, keeping their nutritional properties but minimizing the “technological interventions” and the use of artificial additives including flavourings. The latter shows the consumers current concern about characteristics like “bio”, “eco” or sustainable.
In consequence, the market trend is going to the production of natural products and additives, being the last one an important part of processed food. In such a way, the companies which work developing additives are moving to the “natural” side, pushed by a more demanding and restrictive law in the use of synthetic products and by the consumer demands.
On the other hand, in the last decade, the extraction of additives from vegetable and animal sources or from food industry by-products has rise as a result of the huge benefits coming from their use in the food industry. The use of Supercritical Fluids technology in such process has been confirmed by numerous research works published in the last years. This technology is classified like “green chemistry” due to the no use of harmful solvents during the extraction process.
As it was mentioned before, the market trend is moving to the consumption of natural products and, food additives, as a part of them, should integrate to this trend. Therefore, companies which develop this kind of products have to look for valid alternatives to replace synthetic products.
Due to the food companies’ increasing concern about the use of organic solvents and their further treatment after their use, the supercritical fluid technology is becoming more and more popular. The future shows promising for this technology for its use in extraction processes and in other food industry fields.
X. Carrión. Alimarket. Novembre 2009
Food additives are substances intentionally added to food for a technological purpose like colouring, sweetening or preserve a product. The idea behind the use of additives is to avoid deterioration or improve the quality/aspect of the product, and not to become a product of lower quality in a better one.
Food habits are changing constantly and consumers are more and more demanding with food they buy and with its manufacturers. The new food technologies are being rapidly accepted while at the same time consumers request more healthy and natural products. Such products should have high sensory quality, keeping their nutritional properties but minimizing the “technological interventions” and the use of artificial additives including flavourings. The latter shows the consumers current concern about characteristics like “bio”, “eco” or sustainable.
In consequence, the market trend is going to the production of natural products and additives, being the last one an important part of processed food. In such a way, the companies which work developing additives are moving to the “natural” side, pushed by a more demanding and restrictive law in the use of synthetic products and by the consumer demands.
On the other hand, in the last decade, the extraction of additives from vegetable and animal sources or from food industry by-products has rise as a result of the huge benefits coming from their use in the food industry. The use of Supercritical Fluids technology in such process has been confirmed by numerous research works published in the last years. This technology is classified like “green chemistry” due to the no use of harmful solvents during the extraction process.
As it was mentioned before, the market trend is moving to the consumption of natural products and, food additives, as a part of them, should integrate to this trend. Therefore, companies which develop this kind of products have to look for valid alternatives to replace synthetic products.
Due to the food companies’ increasing concern about the use of organic solvents and their further treatment after their use, the supercritical fluid technology is becoming more and more popular. The future shows promising for this technology for its use in extraction processes and in other food industry fields.
X. Carrión. Alimarket. Novembre 2009
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
supercritical products...
Please let me introduce our new brand in cosmetics...
As you may imagine, due to the name, our products are well related with the matter of this blog.
In fact PlusKRITIK is the first commercial brand of IDOKI SCF Technologies S.L. and it's composed by a number of cosmetic products...
The name comes from the use of supercritical fluid extract in the formulation of the products that are moreover eco-products or natural cosmetics.
We also have launched a blog a community and an e-shop with the aim of showing the way we work and to contact our customers to share our knowledge in cosmetics and well being.
Unfortunately, by now, all these webs are in Spanish but I hope some of you will like to have a look, and even make some comments (here or there...).
Thursday, 10 September 2009
FLUCOMP 2010
In the "3rd meeting of experts in compressed fluids technologies", carried out in february 2009, the thematic net "FLUCOMP" evolved in a "Scientific associaton of compressed Fluids" with the same name.
Now will take place the "4th meeting of experts in compressed fluids technologies" that will be held in Ciudad Real (Spain) from the 10th to 12th February.
Dead line for the submition of abstracts is 30th September and they have to be sent to congreso.flucomp2010@uclm.es .
Hope to see you there!
Thursday, 30 July 2009
Supergreen2009
The main theme of the sixth Supergreen symposium is the fusion of the SCF technology with the material science technology, device technology, environmental technology, and the other technologies, which will aid in expanding the applications of the SCF technology.
Supergreen2009 will be held from October 15th to 17th, 2009 at Sakura Hall, Katahira Campus, Tohoku University, Sendai City, Miyagi, Japan.
Early registration before September 18th, 2009.
Monday, 20 April 2009
Last call for LLLIC-SCF-GSCE 2009!!!
Don´t forget that the Deadline for Registration to the "Life Long Learning Intensive Course Supercritical Fluids-Green Solvents in Chemical Engineering" is this Friday, 24th April 2009.
See you there!
See you there!
Sunday, 15 March 2009
5th INTERNATIONAL THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL CONFERENCE
The scope of the congress includes thermodynamics and phase equilibria, transfer phenomena in SCF systems; extraction and fractionation; chemical synthesis and reactions of SC reactants and in SC media; modification and dispersion of natural and synthetic materials; SCF chromatography and analytical applications of SCF; experimentation in SCF systems; economical aspects of SCF technologies.
You can get the 1st circular and visit their web.
Chair : LUNIN V.V, President of CSCFT, MSU (Moscow)
Contact : scftec@isc-ras.ru
Early registration: Before 1 April, 2009
Thursday, 5 March 2009
AFTS
This organizations aims to enhance the relationship between their partners and to promote the collaboration for the use of Supercritical Fluid Technologies in the obtaining of more secure, sustainable and with better quality products.
At the same time the association wants to increase the knowledge of the society about supercritical fluids technologies, their advantages and the enhanced quality of its products.
You can read here the new in Spanish.
Friday, 20 February 2009
CO2 + H2O -> fuel + O2 UPDATE
In an older post, one year ago, I found a new about "the best way to avoid Climate Change":
convert the CO2 in fuel...
the problem was the source of energy...
and the solution was ¿nuclear energy?
Well, this blog is to talk about supercritical fluids, and some researches are being done that connect both subjects.
Photocatalytic preferential reduction of CO2 to methane can be performed by means of photoactalytic systems. The way of catalyst are made produces important differences and their synthesis in supercritical fluid can give interesting properties.
Some previous related works...
"Effect of Synthesis Conditions on Photocatalytic Activity of TiO2 Powders Synthesized in Supercritical CO2"The Journal of Supercritical Fluids, In Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available online 23 January 2009E. Alonso, I. Montequi, M.J. Cocero.
"Effect of TiO2 particle size on the photocatalytic reduction of CO2" Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, In Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available online 24 January 2009K. Kočí, L. Obalová, L. Matějová, D. Plachá, J. Jirkovský, O. Šolcová
"Photocatalytic reduction of CO2 using TiO2 powders in supercritical fluid CO2" Energy, Volume 24, Issue 1, January 1999, Pages 21-30Satoshi Kaneco, Hidekazu Kurimoto, Yasuhiro Shimizu, Kiyohisa Ohta, Takayuki Mizuno
convert the CO2 in fuel...
the problem was the source of energy...
and the solution was ¿nuclear energy?
Well, this blog is to talk about supercritical fluids, and some researches are being done that connect both subjects.
Photocatalytic preferential reduction of CO2 to methane can be performed by means of photoactalytic systems. The way of catalyst are made produces important differences and their synthesis in supercritical fluid can give interesting properties.
Some previous related works...
"Effect of Synthesis Conditions on Photocatalytic Activity of TiO2 Powders Synthesized in Supercritical CO2"The Journal of Supercritical Fluids, In Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available online 23 January 2009E. Alonso, I. Montequi, M.J. Cocero.
"Effect of TiO2 particle size on the photocatalytic reduction of CO2" Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, In Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available online 24 January 2009K. Kočí, L. Obalová, L. Matějová, D. Plachá, J. Jirkovský, O. Šolcová
"Photocatalytic reduction of CO2 using TiO2 powders in supercritical fluid CO2" Energy, Volume 24, Issue 1, January 1999, Pages 21-30Satoshi Kaneco, Hidekazu Kurimoto, Yasuhiro Shimizu, Kiyohisa Ohta, Takayuki Mizuno
Sunday, 15 February 2009
9th SYMPOSIUM INTERNATIONAL ON SUPERCRITICAL FLUIDS
The goal of this edition is to bring together scientists and engineers interested in Supercritical Fluids from traditional and emergent areas. The symposium will focus on new perspectives to identify new challenges and breakthroughs in the field.
Early registration is to be done before 31/01/2009.
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
LLLIC-SCF-GSCE
No, I'm not mad...
These are the initials of the "Life Long Learning Intensive Course Supercritical Fluids-Green Solvents in Chemical Engineering" that will be held in KOC University (Istanbul, Turkey) from 25th June to 9th July 2009.
These are the initials of the "Life Long Learning Intensive Course Supercritical Fluids-Green Solvents in Chemical Engineering" that will be held in KOC University (Istanbul, Turkey) from 25th June to 9th July 2009.
This Life Long Learning Intensive Course was promoted by the members of the Working Party “High Pressure Technology” of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE) and all members, recognised European experts both in the theoretical aspects and in the industrial applications of supercritical fluids, will present the topics.
You can find this information and more information in the Circular or in the web page.
On the web page you can also find the registration form.
Deadline for Registration is 24th April 2009.
Friday, 16 January 2009
3rd meeting of experts in compressed fluids technologies
The purpose of the meeting is to update the list of research groups in Supercritical Fluids applications and to present the “Spanish association of compressed Fluids”.
You can find more information in their web (in Spanish).
Wednesday, 7 January 2009
20th anniversary of Advanced Materials
The journal "Advanced Materials" is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Having an Impact Factor of 8.191 Advanced Materials is one of the most influential journals in the field.
Therefore a quick review of articles published in this journal related with "supercritical fluids" may give us an idea of the its use in materials design. From 1993 to 2008, 43 articles talk about something related to supercritical fluids.
Last trend is the use of SCF in the synthesis of Nano-tubes, which is at the same time one of the more promising lines of research in materials. For example in the next number of the journal an article entitled "Synthesis of Carbon-Nanotube Composites Using Supercritical Fluids and Their Potential Applications" will be published.
You can also download the "anniversary review" on their web, or with this link.
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