Enriching β-carotene from fatty acid esters mixture of palm oil using supercritical CO2 in the silica-packed column

A green approach of using supercritical CO2 in a silica-packed column via adsorption and desorption steps has been developed to enrich β-carotene in the 10% β-carotene concentrate made from crude palm oil. In the adsorption stage, the yield of the β-carotene poor fraction with the content of 3% was 82.2% when the pressure, temperature, CO2 flow rate and the time were 25 MPa, 60 ℃, 3 kg/h, and 180 min, respectively. The rich β-carotene fraction adsorbed in the column was thoroughly extracted out by supercritical CO2 when the pressure, temperature, flow rate and time were 35 MPa, 70 ℃, 3 kg/h, and 120 min, respectively, in which the β-carotene content reached 27% and the yield reached 22.3%. This two-step process is an efficient way to prepare natural β-carotene with high content and has potential applications in the concentration of value-added components.