Supercritical extraction in petroleum refining and petrochemistry

The serious lag in domestic oil refining technology is not only due to mate rial anc financial problems, but also to the lack of due attention to the n ewest trends in development of many existing processes which could fundamen tally alter their process design. Supercritical fluid extraction could be o ne of these revolutionary trends. Scientific research in this area began ap proximately 100 years ago [1].