In 1966 John Connolly of Standard Oil Co. published remarkable data on hydrocarbon solubilities in water at high temperatures and pressures [2]: he observed that, in some regions of the phase diagram, hydrocarbons (e.g., benzene, heptane) and water are miscible in all proportions. Rapid development of experimental techniques made Connolly's work possible and speculations began about the consequences of his observations. For example, in 1970 Gerhard Schneider suggested the extension of wet air oxidation to higher temepratures for disposal of organic materials [3]. In the mid 1970's Sanjay Amin, a student working with Robert Reid and Michael Modell at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), studied decomposition of organic compounds in hot water and found that the intractable tars that formed below the critical temperature of water, disappeared above it. Research and development on supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) for disposal of organic waste materials began soon after [4].
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