Design of temperature control system in extraction process based on Microwave Assisted Hydrodistillation (MAHD) method

Abstract

Research on temperature control in microwave assisted hydrodistilation has been carry out and it has become special topic in this article. According to data from the Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia in 2014, 40 of 70 essential oil-producing plants in the world can be produced in Indonesia. However, almost all essential oil produced in Indonesia have a low quality. This is caused by many factors, one of them is the lack of downstream processes. Some of the essential oils produced do not meet international standards. A common method to produce essential oils is conventional distillation which is not efficient and need a high consumption of energy. In order to reduce extraction time, increase extraction yields and minimize production costs, several new approaches have been taken such as MAE (Microwave Assisted Extraction). In this study, we developed a MAHD method with controlled temperatures. Extracted material was placed in the container given microwave exposure and the temperature was controlled. The purpose of the research is to develop extraction methods in order to improve the quality of essential oils produced in Indonesia. The results of apparatus performance are: a) capable to control the temperature with a range of errors ±1°C, b) to be able to produce the essential oils (Zingiber officinale) greater than other methods, namely, 1.71% and c) to be able to has energy effectiveness of 90.29%