CO2-intensified Hydrolysis of Rutin to Quercetin - A Comparison of Experimental Data and modelled Reaction Kinetics

•CO2-intensified hydrolysis of rutin to quercetin.•Establishing of two reaction kinetic models (variation of pressure and temperature).•Introducing the »H+-factor« for describing the influence of CO2 for hydrolysis reaction of the model substances rutin and quercetin.•Best performance for CO2-intensified hydrolysis at 413.15 K and 150 bar CO2-pressure.

This work describes the possibility to hydrolyze rutin (quercetin-3-O-rutinoside) to quercetin using carbon dioxide (CO2) and water without the addition of acids or enzymes. Eight hours of CO2-intensified hydrolysis of aqueous rutin-solutions were carried out to investigate temperature (373.15 K-433.15 K) and pressure dependence (4-150 bar). Both temperature and CO2-pressure dependence are studied. The parameter combination of 413.15 K and 150 bar gave a complete (100 %) conversion of rutin to quercetin. Temperature and pressure dependence were modelled. Models achieved correlation coefficients between R2 = 0.85 and 0.99. Influence of H+ ions was described by implementing the »H+-factor« to explain the hydrolysis effect of CO2-pressure in more detail. The results of this work demonstrate that CO2-intensified hydrolysis is possible at moderate temperatures and pressures.