Pressure drop may negatively impact supercritical CO2 extraction of citrus peel essential oils in an industrial-size extraction vessel

Abstract

Abstract We determined the effect of pressure drop (ΔP) in a 3.6-m tall vessel on the CO2 extraction of Citrus Peel Oil (CPO). We represented mass transfer using a linear-driving-force model and a pseudo-Sips’ desorption isotherm for CPO. A single microstructural factor (877) was estimated from literature data on CPO extraction at several extraction conditions. We simulated the effect of ΔP on CPO extraction at 50\u2009°C varying particle diameter (0.5\u2009≤\u2009dp\u2009≤\u20092\u2009mm), bed porosity (0.20\u2009≤\u2009e\u2009≤\u20090.35), and inlet CO2 pressure (9\u2009≤\u2009Pin\u2009≤\u200910\u2009MPa) under incipient fluidization conditions. The negative effect of ΔP on CPO extraction increased markedly as dp or e decreased, or as Pin increased, with a 1.8 time increase in extraction time as compared to isobaric conditions when using 4.54\u2009kg s−1\u2009m−2 of CO2 at 50\u2009°C and 10\u2009MPa (dp\u2009=\u20090.5\u2009mm and e\u2009=\u20090.30).