Phase equilibria for the removal of ethanol from alcoholic beverages using supercritical carbon dioxide

The removal of ethanol from alcoholic beverages using supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2) as solvent was studied considering the CO2 + ethanol + water mixture as model system. The extensive phase equilibria data reported in the literature for this ternary system, together with new experimental data of different CO2 + alcoholic beverage mixtures, were employed to analyze the effect of temperature and pressure on the phase behavior of the supercritical dealcoholization process. It was demonstrated that phase envelopes and tie-lines of the ternary CO2 + ethanol + water phase diagram depend on CO2 density. Thus, different combinations of extraction temperature and pressure can produce the same removal of ethanol from the alcoholic beverage.The GC-EoS thermodynamic model was used to represent phase equilibria behavior and to simulate a countercurrent multistage dealcoholization process. Despite extraction temperature and pressure, at constant CO2 density almost the same elimination of ethanol was attained and the concentration of ethanol in the dealcoholized product was mainly determined by the ratio between the solvent to beverage flows.

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