Abstract
Abstract In the present study, the software Aspen Plus® was used to analyse two different systems for CO2 recycle in a SFE process for extraction of more polar compounds using ethanol as co-solvent, the most common co-solvent used due to its environment-friendly nature. The extraction process of β-ecdysone from Brazilian ginseng roots was considered as example in the computational simulations. The first CO2 recycle system, named Recycle A, considered the compression of the CO2 separated in the second flash to the recycle pressure assumed at the first flash tank, its cooling to 25 °C and recirculation, while the second recycle system, named Recycle B, considered the cooling and pumping of the CO2 separated in the second flash, its heating to 25 °C and recirculation. The best techno-economic condition to operate the recycling step would be using Recycle A at 40 bar and 30 °C considering a stand-alone SFE process; and using Recycle B at 40 bar and 40 °C, considering this process in close proximity of a hypothetical sugarcane biorefinery. Therefore, these results suggest that the selection where would be located the SFE plant should be taken into account during the first steps of the process design.
Highlights
Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) is a process that takes advantage of the increase in the solvation power of fluids near or above their critical points
We aim to evaluate the other impacts related to the integration of a supercritical fluid extraction plant to a sugarcane biorefinery, focusing on the CO2 recycle step
In other to evaluate this new scenario we considered this process in close proximity of a hypothetical sugarcane biorefinery, being the Brazilian ginseng residue from the process directly used at the cogeneration system
Summary
Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) is a process that takes advantage of the increase in the solvation power of fluids near or above their critical points. In spite of the possibility of using different supercritical fluids, carbon dioxide is the solvent usually used in applications related to the cosmetic, food and pharmaceutical industries. The power of supercritical carbon dioxide for selectively extract some substances from different vegetable matrixes is widely recognized. In some cases the solubility of some specific compounds is not good. This can be overcome by the addition of cosolvent, usually a more polar solvent such as ethanol, for example, to the supercritical solvent; this affects the properties of the fluid phase because of the strong interactions among the solute, the solvent, and the cosolvent (Pereira & Meireles, 2010; Santos & Meireles, 2011)
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