Supercritical fluid extraction of peach (Prunus persica) almond oil: Kinetics, mathematical modeling and scale-up

Peach almonds contain oil with important therapeutic and nutritional properties due to the presence of unsaturated fatty acids, high content of oleic acid and other substances. In this study, peach almond oil was obtained by means of supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), with yield up to 24% w/w. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of the operation variables in the process kinetics in order to define scale-up parameters, like extractor volume and solvent flow rate. In spite of the importance for industrial application, the definition of a scale-up methodology is difficult. Therefore, the main goal of this work was to study the kinetic aspects of the SFE by modeling the extraction curves and, with these results, suggests a scale-up methodology. The parameters evaluated were extraction pressure, CO2 flow rate and particle size. The mass transfer models used to describe the extraction curves were logistic model, diffusion model and Sovová model. Four scale-up methodologies, based on mass transfer mechanisms, were applied. The results indicate the best curve fitting by means of Sovová’s model, while the best scale-up criterion was maintaining the ratio QCO2/MQCO2/M (solvent flow rate/raw material mass) constant. This study also indicated the convection as the dominant mass transfer mechanism, while the diffusion was the limiting factor. Moreover, the SFE of peach almond oil could be predicted by the scale-up method used.

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