Lycopene solubility in mixtures of carbon dioxide and ethyl acetate

In order to improve the efficiency of processes using supercritical (sc) carbon dioxide (CO2) to micronize the carotenoid “lycopene”, it is important to know the solubility of lycopene in mixtures of the organic solvent ethyl acetate (EA) and the antisolvent CO2 at elevated pressures. The solubility of lycopene has been determined for different temperatures (313–333 K), pressures (12–16 MPa) and CO2 molar fractions (0.58–1). The obtained data show that CO2 acts as an antisolvent in the system lycopene/EA/CO2 in the range of CO2/EA ratios studied. The solubility of lycopene is rather small with lycopene molar fractions ranging from 0.1 × 10−6 to 46 × 10−6. The solubility of lycopene increases with temperature, pressure and EA concentration.

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► The solubility of lycopene in mixtures of CO2 and ethyl acetate has been studied.
► CO2 is an antisolvent for lycopene in mixtures of CO2 and ethyl acetate.
► Antisolvent processes seem to be suitable for micronizing lycopene particles.