HIGH - PRESSURE EXTRACTION OF JOJOBA OIL WITH M IXED - CO 2 /PROPANE SOLVENTS

C. PALLA; P. HEGEL; S. PEREDA; S. BOTTINI; E. BRIGNOLE

Cartagena

Conferencia; III Iberoamerican Conference on Supercritical Fluids; 2013

Universidad del Valle

Previous studies on the phase equilibria of jojoba oil and CO2+propane mixtures have shown that this solvent mixture is a good separation agent for the extraction of jojoba oil from seeds. High solvent load capacities can be obtained using a solvent mixture with CO2 concentrations up to 70 wt%, working at 313 K and 200 bars. In this work the extraction of jojoba oil with high pressure liquid CO2/propane solvent mixtures was studied experimentally. First, jojoba oil was extracted at 313 K using different liquid solvent concentrations (30 wt%, 50 wt% and 70 wt% CO2) at pressures of 70 bars and 200 bars, to assess the influence of the solvent composition and phase behavior on extraction rate. A great influence of the phase condition on the extraction rate was determined. Similar results were obtained when the high-pressure liquid extractions of jojoba oil from milled seeds were carried out using solvent mixtures containing 30 wt% and 50 wt% CO2 at 313K and 70 bars. A mixed CO2 + propane liquid solvent with 30 wt% CO2 exhibits good solvent power. An oil extraction yield of 90 % was obtained at 313 K and 70 bar, by applying a solvent to oilseed mass ratio of 8 g solvent / g oilseed to jojoba flour (milled seeds having diameters lower that 0.84 mm) preheated at 343 K.