Organic chemical reactions in hot, compressed water can be used to advantage for waste treatment, green chemistry, waste valorization, production of renewable fuels, and elimination of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Water near its critical point has properties similar to a moderately polar organic solvent and it has an elevated concentration of hydronium ions, which can facilitate acid-catalyzed reactions. This presentation provides an overview of kinetics, catalysis, and reaction engineering research advances related to oxidation in supercritical water for
destruction of organic waste, chemical synthesis in high-temperature water, hydrothermal treatment and valorization of waste biomass and plastics, and production of renewable bio-oil from hydrothermal liquefaction of biomass. The advances include insights from well-designed experiments, fundamental mechanistic insights obtained via molecular simulation, computational chemistry, and detailed chemical kinetics models, and engineering insights from phenomenological models of global reaction networks.
