In this Kenneth A. Spencer symposium, I shall discuss my multidisciplinary involvement in the areas of agricultural and food utilizing chemistry, applied engineering, and number of aspects of a diverse portfolio of food technology applications.  This has involved a number of research and development activities in academia, government, and industrial laboratories, in both basic as well as applied research projects spanning over 50 year period.  These R&D activities have been connected through the use of separation and processing technologies, particularly using sub- and super-critical fluids whose use promote environmentally-sustainability and have resulted in many consumer-friendly products. The roadmap to these developments have included many collaborations both nationally and internationally - liaisons with researchers/institutions in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, including the USA-regulatory agencies of FDA, FSIS, FGIS, and EPA.  Exploitation of synergisms that existed between chemistry-engineering using compressed-CO<sub>2</sub> and water media will be discussed, often times citing multi-mode applications that involved extraction, fractionation, and reaction performed sequentially on food or energy crop materials to yield specific end-use products.  Specific examples that will be cited are utilization of lipolysis esterification or hydrogenation coupled for synthesis, nutrient analysis, and characterization of archeological artifacts.  Major investigative techniques that have been employed are Hansen-   solubility parameter theory, physicochemical chromatographic-based measurements, and novel high pressure equipment for both processing and analytical purposes. A major R&D emphasis over this time period has been creating value-added by-products from agriculturally-derived processing wastes; grape/berry pomaces, deodorizer distillates, expeller-derived residues, and wood wastes.  Seminal studies involving adsorbent-adsorbate interactions, high pressure phase equilibria-solubility modeling, and CO<sub>2</sub>-based cleaning-conversation processing have supported the applied studies on the above foodstuffs, biomass, and recently, cannabis-hemp.   Finally, this presentation will conclude by presenting a collage of products the awardee has been directly or indirectly-involved in the development of using the critical fluid technology platform.

Spencer Award Address:  A multidisciplinary journey through agricultural and food chemistry

ACS Fall 2020 Virtual Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.