A PIONEERING processing facility that guarantees faster and cleaner chemical manufacturing was praised by Science and Innovation Minister Lord Sainsbury yesterday.

Lord Sainsbury was speaking as he officially opened the facility at Thomas Swan and Co in Crookhall, Consett, County Durham - billed as a unique green chemical plant which points the way forward for the industry.

The plant uses the advanced technology of supercritical fluids (SCF) to replace the toxic and volatile solvents used in conventional chemical manufacturing.

Lord Sainsbury said: "This is an excellent example of efficiency combined with green chemistry, which can only benefit the environment."

The plant has attracted worldwide interest from pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturers, as well as environmentalists because the process promises both commercial advantages and environmental gains.

The technology has been proven in the laboratory, but it is the first time that general chemical manufacturing can take advantage of the benefits.

The technology leaves Swan's - a family-owned firm set up about 100 years ago to turn slag from the town's steelworks into road-building materials - at the cutting edge of the industry.

General manager Dai Hayward said: "Supercritical fluids have demonstrated real potential to solve some of the process and environmental problems encountered increasingly in the chemical industry.

"In partnership with Nottingham University, we have transformed the theory into a practical technology, with considerable benefits."

Mr Hayward added: "The Swan-SCF process is remarkable for its accuracy, processing only what needs to be targeted and so eliminating waste and problem by- products.

"This, together with the absence of volatile solvents, delivers a major cost and environmental benefit."

The full-scale facility follows Swan's initial investigation of the potential of the technology.

The company has funded a research programme at Nottingham University since 1995 under Professor Martyn Poliakoff, who is an acknowledged international expert in SCFs.

A small-scale trial plant was successfully operated by Swan's Consett plant for four years while a system was devised to develop the process on an industrial scale.

Before this step forward, standard SCF technology had only been applied in a small number of plants and processes - including coffee decaffeination, brewing and the disposal of toxic materials.

SCFs are gases compressed to a point where they behave more like liquids.

The SCFs have both gas and solvent-like properties which can be tuned through adjustments to pressure and temperature.