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A new industrial process for extracting cocoa butter and xanthines with supercritical carbon dioxide
Author(s) -
Li Shufen,
Hartland Stanley
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of the american oil chemists' society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.512
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1558-9331
pISSN - 0003-021X
DOI - 10.1007/bf02523913
Subject(s) - theobromine , chemistry , supercritical carbon dioxide , distillation , supercritical fluid , extraction (chemistry) , caffeine , ethanol , pulp and paper industry , food science , process engineering , organic chemistry , engineering , medicine , endocrinology
This research explores the feasibility of extracting cocoa butter and xanthines (theobromine and caffeine) from cocoa beans with supercritical CO 2 . It is difficult to carry out the extraction with CO 2 alone in the temperature range 40–90°C at pressures between 80 to 300 bar. However, the addition of a polar cosolvent, such as ethanol, greatly enhances solubilities, especially that of cocoa butter. Based on experimental investigations and theoretical inference, the design of a potential industrial process for extracting cocoa butter and xanthines is proposed, in which ethanol is used as cosolvent, and distillation is used to separate and regenerate ethanol. The pressure required is much less than that for CO 2 alone as specified in the patent literature.