Matthew C. Menkiti

Kinetic and parametric studies for the extractive synthesis of oil from Terminalia catappa L. kernel

Non-linear kinetics and effects of process parameter variation for the extraction of Terminalia catappa L. kernel oil (TCKO) were investigated via solvent extraction. The non-linear kinetic models studied were: parabolic diffusion, power law, hyperbolic, Elovich, and pseudo-second order. Process variables considered were: kernel average particle size, time and temperature. In ascending order, the best fitted models are hyperbolic (average RMS; average SEE 0.04971; 0.6574) and pseudo-second order (average RMS; average SEE 0.04032; 0.5721). However, parabolic, power law and Elovich’s models failed to give adequate fitting to the experimental data. Physicochemical properties of the TCKO showed its potential for transformer oil production.