Extraction of oil from mishes using ethanol as an alternative solvent

Abstract

Between the various types of vegetable oils consumed, the corn germ oil stands out, is characterized by benefits to human health and being considered raw material in Angola, due to the climatic characteristics of these regions. It is in this context that the present work was developed, which aims to implement methodologies to extract corn germ oil, having hydrated ethanol as solvent. The procedure consisted of the use of Soxhlet, as extractor, hydrated ethanol, with an operating temperature of 80ºC, when a vapor current of the solvent that rises to the condenser and the condensate descends to the carthusian with the corn germ where it is accumulated, extracts the oil, and returns to the base of this equipment. The procedure used showed high operational performance and extraction capacity was comparable to the data cited in the literature, based on the use of conventional solvents. The procedure resulted in 7 ml (6.3g) of corn oil with a specific mass of 900 kg/m3 and a refractive index of 1.469. These results show that the use of ethanol as a solvent provides the identification of alternative solvents, derived from biomass processing, with similar efficiency or better than the efficiency obtained when using conventional solvents.