Production of cooking oil from corn germ using supercritical co2 as solvent

This work was aimed at the production of edible oil from three different corn samples. Sohxlet extraction and supercritical fluid extraction methods were used to extract the oil and study the effect of pretreatment of the corn germ, pressure, temperature and flow rate on the process. Out of the three samples used UK sample 1 had the lowest oil content of9.00 %, UK sample 2 has the highest oil content of 16.37% and Nigerian (NGN) sample had oil content of 12.10 %. Apparent solublity of corn oil in supercritical C02 measurement shows that the crossover pressure is 240 bars. The oil recovered in the slow extraction period was negligible as compared to that recovered in the fast extraction period. It was therefore not economical to continue the extraction in the slow extraction period. Based on the result it is better to carry out the test at a flow rate of 4 1/min. For both UK sample 2 and the NGN samples, extraction at 300 bar had higher oil yield and faster recovery. The results of this study on supercritical extraction revealed that that UK sample 2 has high economic potentials followed by NGN sample