In light of environmental concerns, the textile industry has accelerated efforts to reduce or
eliminate water consumption in all areas of yarn preparation, dyeing, and finishing. Supercritical
fluid dyeing technology has the potential to accomplish this objective in many commercial textile
applications around the world, both at present and in the future around the world. Increased
interest in this technology has made a fundamental understanding of thermophysical (equilibrium
solubility) and transport (kinetics) properties of such fluids and fluid mixtures necessary.
Supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) is one of the most environmentally acceptable solvents in
use today, and textile processes using it have many advantages when compared to conventional
aqueous processes.
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Positive environmental effects range from drastically reduced water
consumption to eliminating hazardous industrial effluent. Furthermore, economic benefits include
increased productivity and energy savings. Successfully commercializing supercritical fluid CO2
processing will improve the economics of dyeing and other textile chemical processes by
eliminating water usage and wastewater discharges and increasing productivity by reducing
processing times as well as required chemicals and auxiliaries and reducing energy consumption
and air emissions. As a result, SC-CO2 processing will be more rapid, more economical, and
more environmentally friendly.