PHASE EQUILIBRIUM ENGINEERING OF JOJOBA OIL EXTRACTION WITH LIQUID CO2+PROPANE MIXTURES.

HEGEL, PABLO EZEQUIEL; GAÑAN, NICOLAS ALBERTO; PEREDA, SELVA; MABE, GUILLERMO; BRIGNOLE, ESTEBAN ALBERTO

San Francisco, CA

Congreso; 10th International Symposium on Supercritical Fluids (ISSF 2012); 2012

University of Arkansas - Virginia Commonwealth University

Jojoba oil is an important ingredient of many cosmetic and hair care products that is composed by monounsaturated esters of high molar mass. It is a liquid wax extracted from the seeds of Jojoba plant (Simmondsia chinensis) by mechanical pressing, followed by a solvent extraction of the pre-pressed Jojoba meal with hexane. Health and environmental concern associated with the use of solvents like hexane have place new demands on cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry to invest in clean technologies such as the Supercritical Fluid Extraction with solvents like CO2 and propane. Jojoba oil has partial miscibility with CO2 in liquid and supercritical state. On the other hand shows complete miscibility with liquid propane at temperatures lower than 343 K, being a good solvent for its extraction. The main drawback of propane is its flammability, any percentage of propane in a propane/air mixture above 2.15 vol.% will be sufficient for propane to burn. However, CO2 in a 30 % V/V in the gas mixture can be used to turn the solvent propane/CO2/air non-flammable. In this work a phase equilibrium engineering analysis has been carried out in order to select appropriate operating conditions of temperature, pressure and solvent concentration for the extraction of Jojoba oil with solvent mixtures of carbon dioxide and propane under liquid conditions.