The key to sustainable technology is achieving an economic benefit for envi
ronmental improvements. The tunability of benign compounds such as CO2 and
water as supercritical and near-critical fluids offers improved performance
and greater flexibility for separation and reaction processes, leading to
economic advantages. Examples of such behavior are supercritical CO2 extrac
tions and separations, CO2-expanded polar liquids for separations, and reac
tions in near-critical water. In each case the tunability is achieved throu
gh density changes or cosolvents and may augment product yield, quality, or
rates.