AzeotropicCO2+ ethane solvent mixture as supercritical extraction media for orange peel oil deterpenation

LUIS IGNACIO GRANNONE; PABLO E. HEGEL; MARIANA FORTUNATTI MONTOYA; SELVA PEREDA

Campinas

Congreso; XIIIBEROAMERICANCONFERENCEONPHASEEQUILIBRIAANDFLUIDPROPERTIESFORPROCESSDESIGN; 2022

UNICAMP

The fractionation of orange peel oil in CO2 was previously studied in the literature with a yield not high enough for moderate pressures. By the other hand, ethane was also proposed as an alternative solvent for this terpene mixture (limonene + linalool + others). Ethane shows a high yield in the fractionation with a poor selectivity for pressures lower than 100 bar. Thus, in this work we propose inspecting the fractionation of the orange peel oil with a solvent mixture ethane-CO2. The mixture of 66% CO2 (molar composition) is an azeotropic mixture and provides a high yield than CO2 fractionation with a better selectivity respect the ethane. A proper design of fractionation process requires the solubility to explore its prospective. The measurements of the solubilities were carried out in a dynamic cell of 40 ml. Operating conditions were selected based on the solubilities measurements were carried out at 333 K in a pressure range from 6 MPa to 11 MPa for the three solvents. The measured solubilities are between 11 mg extract/g Ethane/CO2 to 55 mg extract/g Ethane/CO2 and the selectivity (mg limonene extracted/mg linalool extracted) are between 180 and 400 for the different solvent. Solubilities of orange peel oil in CO2 and ethane are in good agreement with literature data for the binary mixture of each solvent and limonene.