Chemistry of supercritical CO2 processing

High-pressure processing, particularly supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) using CO2 as solvent, has been established as a clean, green, and environmentally-friendly technique with numerous advantages comparing to other techniques in terms of isolation of lipophilic compounds. Considering the recent advances in the development of SFE toward isolation of various bioactive compounds (BACs), the aim of this chapter was to provide systematic review of main aspects in its utilization. The first part is focused on the main theoretical aspects associated with mechanism, governing principles, and impact of process parameters. In the second part, potential for the application in prevention of degradation, isolation/extraction of BACs, and microbial inactivation was thoroughly evaluated in order to review the state-of-the-art techniques and set further challenges.