Recovery of the main pear aroma compound by adsorption/desorption onto commercial granular activated carbon: Equilibrium and kinetics

Adsorption and posterior desorption of ethyl 2,4-decadienoate from model aqueous solutions on granular activated carbon (GAC) were investigated as efficient technologies in the recovery and concentration of this valuable aroma component, one of the compounds responsible of the typical flavour impact of pears. The equilibrium and kinetics of the separation processes were analyzed at different temperatures. The thermodynamic parameters were obtained from the equilibrium data, being (−ΔH) = 38.35 kJ mol−1, indicating the exothermic and physical nature of the adsorption process. A kinetic model that considers the influence of external mass transfer and intraparticle diffusion was developed and permitted the estimation of the effective pore diffusivity, Dp∗, ranging between 0.47 × 10−9 and 6.14 × 10−9 m2 s−1 when the operation temperatures changed from 283 to 322 K. In the desorption step aroma concentrations could reach values up to 40 times higher than the initial ethyl 2,4-decadienoate solution for the simulations presented in this work thus showing the viability of the concentration process.