Theoretical Study of the Fractionation of Glycerol Laurates Using SC-CO2

FRANCISCO A. SÁNCHEZ; NATALIA S. COTABARREN; PABLO E. HEGEL; SELVA PEREDA

Córdoba

Conferencia; PROSCIBA 2023; 2023

Universidad Nacional de Córdoba

The objective of this work is to evaluate the selectivity of SC-CO2 in separating the key componentsof the reactive mixture, including water, glycerin, lauric acid, and the three glycerollaurates. Due to limited experimental information on these systems, the use of a predictivemodel is required. In this study, we employed the Group Contribution with Association Equation of State (GCA-EOS) to thermodynamically model the system. Previous studies haveshown the effectiveness of this model in predicting phase equilibria of related compounds,such as triglycerides and biodiesel in the presence of CO2. Moreover, it has been utilized toassess the selectivity of CO2 in the separation of the three glycerol acetates.In this work, we evaluate the effect of temperature, pressure, and solvent ratio for designing afeasible phase scenario for fractionation of glycerol laurates. The phase equilibrium engineeringallows for the decoupling of the variable effects, which is crucial in designing future experimentsregarding the fractionation of reaction products.