Irena Žižović is a full professor of chemical engineering at the Faculty of Chemistry, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Poland. She has 30 years of experience in applying supercritical carbon dioxide in processes such as extraction, impregnation, polymer foaming, and grafting reactions. In the last ten years, her focus has been designing advanced materials, such as those with strong antibacterial or antibiofilm properties, aerogels for different applications, active food packaging, polymeric systems for drug delivery, and novel composite materials for gas separations. Irena Zizovic is the co-author of more than 100 scientific studies, with a citation record of 2280 and an h-index of 28. She was the PI of five national and three international projects and co-authored four patents. Irena Zizovic has been an active member of the Working Party for High-Pressure Technology of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering since 2014.

Applying Supercritical CO2 to green manufacturing in the gas separation, food, and pharmaceutical sectors

 Supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) is an efficient tool in materials design due to its favorable thermodynamic and transport properties, such as high density and diffusivity, low viscosity, and the absence of surface tension. It can be used as a solvent, transport medium, plasticizer, foaming agent, or a reaction medium. In addition, scCO2 usage allows for reducing or eliminating effluents and solid wastes, making it a valuable tool in green manufacturing. The lecture will comprise three parts. In the first part, the properties of supercritical state will be highlighted and the most important applications of scCO2 will be introduced. Thereafter, the enhancement of the properties of composite membranes aimed at gas separation and food packaging by filler modification in scCO2 will be presented. The last part of the lecture will be devoted to applying supercritical fluid technology and cocrystal engineering to design systems for the controlled release of active substances and drug bioavailability enhancement.