Open AccessModeling the supercritical desorption of orange essential oil from a silica-gel bed
Author(s) -
Edson Antônio da Silva,
Lúcio CardozoFilho,
Fred Wolff,
M. Angela A. Meireles
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
brazilian journal of chemical engineering/brazilian journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.313
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1678-4383
pISSN - 0104-6632
DOI - 10.1590/s0104-66322000000300004
Subject(s) - limonene , supercritical carbon dioxide , supercritical fluid , chemistry , desorption , chromatography , silica gel , supercritical fluid extraction , aroma , extraction (chemistry) , chemical engineering , essential oil , organic chemistry , adsorption , food science , engineering
One of the most important byproducts of the orange juice industry is the oil phase. This is a mixture of terpenes, alcohols, and aldehydes, dissolved in approximately 96% limonene. To satisfactorily use oil phase as an ingredient in the food and cosmetics industries separation of the limonene is required. One possibility is to use a fixed bed of silica gel to remove the light or aroma compounds from the limonene. The aroma substances are then extracted from the bed of silica gel using supercritical carbon dioxide. This work deals with the modeling of the desorption step of the process using mass balance equations coupled with the Langmuir equilibrium isotherm. Data taken from the literature for the overall extraction curves were used together with empirical correlations to calculate the concentration profile of solute in the supercritical phase at the bed outlet. The system of equations was solved by the finite volume technique. The overall extraction curves calculated were in good agreement with the experimental ones