Compositions are provided that include having at least 95% by weight of a taxane, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, where the particles have a mean bulk density between about 0.050 g/cm.sup.3 and about 0.15 g/cm.sup.3, and/or a specific surface area (SSA) of at least 18 m.sup.2/g, 20 m.sup.2/g, 25 m.sup.2/g, 30 m.sup.2/g, 32 m.sup.2/g, 34 m.sup.2/g, or 35 m.sup.2/g. Methods for making and using such compositions are also provided.

A new wet oxidation process of wastes, specifically of mixtures of at least two, liquid (wastewaters) and dense (sludges), pumpable wastes is described. An apparatus useful for a wet oxidation process of this type is also described.

A method for upgrading a petroleum feedstock using a supercritical water petroleum upgrading system includes introducing the petroleum feedstock, water and an auxiliary feedstock. The method includes operating the system to combine the petroleum feedstock and the water to form a mixed petroleum feedstock and introducing separately and simultaneously into a lower portion of an upflowing supercritical water reactor. The auxiliary feedstock is introduced such that a portion of a fluid contained within the upflowing reactor located proximate to the bottom does not lack fluid momentum. An embodiment of the method includes operating the supercritical water petroleum upgrading system such that the upflowing reactor product fluid is introduced into an upper portion of a downflowing supercritical water reactor. The supercritical water petroleum upgrading system includes the upflowing supercritical water reactor and optionally a downflowing supercritical water reactor.

An intermediate medium heat exchanging device for a supercritical water oxidation system includes a material main loop, an intermediate medium loop and a replenishment branch. A material pump, a preheater, a spray type desuperheater, a reactor and a regenerator are connected in sequence to form the material main loop; a buffer tank, a circulating pump, the regenerator, the preheater and a water cooler form the intermediate medium loop. A back pressure valve is located above the buffer tank. The replenishment branch includes a cooling water pump, an outlet of the cooling water pump is divided into two sub-branches, one sub-branch is connected with the spray type desuperheater, and another sub-branch is connected with the buffer tank. The intermediate medium heat exchanging device is reasonable in structural design, and is able to maximally reduce the investment cost and ensure the stable operation of the system.

An integrated upgrading process for upgrading a heavy oil, the process comprising the steps of introducing a heavy oil to a visbreaker unit; processing the heavy oil in the visbreaker unit to produce a visbreaker product stream; feeding the visbreaker product stream to a fractionator; separating the visbreaker product stream in the fractionator to produce a bottoms stream, a gas oil stream, a naphtha stream, and a gas product stream; feeding the bottoms stream to a supercritical water unit; and processing the bottoms stream in the supercritical water unit to produce an upgraded bottoms stream.

Processes for drying gel particles, in particular for producing aerogels, involve providing a suspension containing gel particles and a solvent, introducing the suspension into a column where carbon dioxide flows in countercurrent, and removing dried aerogel particles from the column. The suspension is introduced in the top region of the column and dried aerogel particles are removed in the lower region. Pressure and temperature in the column are set such that the mixture of carbon dioxide and solvent is virtually supercritical or is supercritical. The aerogel particles can be discharged via discharge vessels or continuous decompression. Aerogel particles can be obtained by such a process and the aerogel particles can be used for medical and pharmaceutical applications, as additive or carrier material for additives for foods, as catalyst support, for cosmetic, hygiene, washing and cleaning applications, for production of sensors, for thermal insulation, or as a core material for VIPs.

Compositions are provided that include having at least 95% by weight of a taxane, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, where the particles have a mean bulk density between about 0.050 g/cm.sup.3 and about 0.15 g/cm.sup.3, and/or a specific surface area (SSA) of at least 18 m.sup.2/g, 20 m.sup.2/g, 25 m.sup.2/g, 30 m.sup.2/g, 32 m.sup.2/g, 34 m.sup.2/g, or 35 m.sup.2/g. Methods for making and using such compositions are also provided.

A process to produce aromatic compounds in a heavy oil product stream comprising the steps of separating the depressurized effluent to produce a vapor product stream and a liquid product stream, reducing a temperature of the vapor product stream to produce a cooled vapor product, separating the cooled vapor product to produce a light oil stream, wherein the light oil stream comprises olefins, separating the light oil stream to produce a light oil slip stream and a light stream, mixing the light stream with a water feed stream to produce an olefin-containing water stream, increasing a pressure of the olefin-containing water stream to produce a pressurized water feed, increasing a temperature of the pressurized water feed to produce a hot water feed, wherein a temperature of the hot water feed is greater than 450° C., converting olefins to aromatic compounds in the hot water feed.

A process for producing olefins comprising the steps of separating the liquid oil in the fractionator to produce a light oil product; separating the light oil product in the extractor to produce a paraffin fraction stream; increasing a pressure of the paraffin fraction stream in a paraffin pump to produce a pressurized paraffin stream; mixing the pressurized paraffin stream with a pressurized water feed in the water mixer to produce a paraffin-containing water stream; heating the paraffin-containing water stream in the water heater to produce a hot paraffin-water stream, wherein a temperature of the hot paraffin-water stream is greater than 450 deg C, wherein the short chain paraffins are operable to crack at the temperature of the hot paraffin-water stream; mixing the hot paraffin-water stream and the hot feedstock in the feed mixer to produce a mixed feed stream; and introducing the mixed feed stream to the supercritical unit.

The invention relates to the use of microjet reactor for processing biomass. The cell lysis of flowable biomass is thereby carried out by means of multiple high-speed liquid jets which collide with one another, wherein the liquid jets contain the cells or consist wholly of the flowable cell mass, wherein intact or wholly or partially lysed biomass is added to at least one of the colliding high-speed liquid jets, and an extraction takes place simultaneously with the collision of the liquid jets or subsequently thereto. The lysis of the cells is initiated or facilitated by the forces that occur on acceleration, introduction of the acceleration, collision of the jets and mixing of the jet constituents.