Supercritical carbon dioxide separation of fish oil ethyl esters by means of a continuous countercurrent process with an internal reflux
Journal article, 2014

The continuous countercurrent fractionation of fish oil ethyl esters using supercritical carbon dioxide is studied, modelling a process with internal reflux generated by a thermal gradient at the top stage. A methodology for process design is proposed and applied to determine the relationships between the temperature at the top stage (T-1), the number of theoretical stages (N), and the solvent to feed ratio (S IF), with the aim of providing a quantitative comparison with the external reflux process. The internal reflux process is viable and, for stated process specifications (mass fraction and recovery of C20 + C22 ethyl esters of 95%), provides comparable or better results than the external reflux process. For example, operating at 13.3 MPa and 50 degrees C, and keeping T-1 in the range (66-70) degrees C, the specifications are attained with N and S/F in the range 16-30 and 88-120, respectively. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

RATIO

SOLUBILITY

Internal reflux

FATTY-ACID ESTERS

Fish oil ethyl esters

Supercritical fluid

Omega-3

VAPOR-LIQUID-EQUILIBRIA

FRACTIONATION

FLUID CO2

process

OMEGA-3-FATTY-ACIDS

Continuous countercurrent

TEMPERATURE-GRADIENT

Peng-Robinson equation of state

PHASE-EQUILIBRIA

SQUALENE

Author

Marco Maschietti

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Forest Products and Chemical Engineering

A. Pedacchia

Sapienza University of Rome

Journal of Supercritical Fluids

0896-8446 (ISSN)

Vol. 86 76-84

Subject Categories

Chemical Sciences

DOI

10.1016/j.supflu.2013.12.003

More information

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3/5/2018 8