Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

Supercritical fluid extraction of flaxseed oil with carbon dioxide was performed. Effects of particle size, pressure, temperature and the flow rate of supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) were investigated. Response surface methodology was used to determine the effects of pressure (30-50 MPa), temperature (50-70 A degrees C) and SC-CO2 flow rate (2-4 g/min) on flaxseed oil yield in SC-CO2. The oil yield was represented by a second order response surface equation (R (2) = 0.993) using the Box-Behnken design of experiments. The oil yield increased significantly with increasing pressure (p < 0.01), temperature (p < 0.05) and SC-CO2 flow rate (p < 0.01). The maximum oil yield from the response surface equation was predicted as 0.267 g/g flaxseed for 15 min extraction of 5 g flaxseed particles (particle diameter < 0.850 mm) at 50 MPa pressure and 70 A degrees C temperature, with 4 g/min solvent flow rate. Total extraction time at these conditions was predicted as 22 min