Abstract
For the extraction of oil from microalgae, which are recognised as an important renewable source of bioactive lipids, supercritical CO 2 is regarded with interest being safer than hexane and offering a negligible environmental impact, short extraction time and petroleum-free final product. A mathematical model, able to describe the kinetics of a supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) process, was applied to the recovery of oil from the cyanobacterium Spirulina (Arthrospira) platensis, characterised by a particularly high content in γ-linolenic acid (C18:3ω-6). In this paper, we examine the kinetics of the SFE and the effect of operating conditions on extraction yield and fatty acid composition of lipid extracts.
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