Phase equilibria study of systems composed of refined babassu oil, lauric acid, ethanol, and water at 303.2 K

Deacidification of vegetable oils can be performed using liquid–liquid extraction as an alternative method to the classical chemical and physical refining processes. This paper reports experimental data for systems containing refined babassu oil, lauric acid, ethanol, and water at 303.2 K with different water mass fractions in the alcoholic solvent (0, 0.0557, 0.1045, 0.2029, and 0.2972). The dilution of solvent with water reduced the distribution coefficient values, which indicates a reduction in the loss of neutral oil. The experimental data were used to adjust the NRTL equation parameters. The global deviation between the observed and the estimated compositions was 0.0085, indicating that the model can accurately predict the behavior of the compounds at different levels of solvent hydration.

► Refining of vegetable oils.
► Deacidification of babassu oil by liquid–liquid extraction using ethanol as solvent.
► Distribution coefficient values of lauric acid and neutral oil were evaluated.
► The carbon chain length of the molecules influenced the solubility of the system.