Countercurrent supercritical fluid extraction of different lipid-type materials: Experimental and thermodynamic modeling

This work presents the main results attained by our research group merging chemical reaction, supercritical fluid extraction, thermodynamic phase equilibrium modeling and chemical analysis to study alternative supercritical extraction processes related with oil-type materials. Different fatty oil raw materials were fractionated in a countercurrent packed column using supercritical carbon dioxide and following different process targets, such as the deacidification of lampante olive oil and the recovery of minor lipid compounds (squalene, tocopherols and phytosterols) from industrial byproducts and wastes. If necessary, in order to facilitate the concentration of the preferred minor lipids in the raffinate product, the raw material employed was previously esterified. The GC-EoS model was used as the thermodynamic tool to represent phase equilibria behavior of the multicomponent oil-type material + CO2 mixture, and was employed to guide experiments so as to simulate and optimize the supercritical extraction processes. The coupling of thermodynamic modeling with experimental work has offered an efficient low-time consuming tool to analyze the viability of supercritical extraction processes.