Citrus essential oils are complex
hydrocarbon mixtures mainly composed
of terpenes and terpenoids and are widely used as raw materials in
food, pharmaceutical, and fine chemical industries. However, essential
oil deterpenation (i.e., separation of terpenes and terpenoids) is
required to preserve the quality of the final product for practical
applications. Currently, there is a need to find efficient and environmentally
friendly solvents to replace the harmful volatile organic compounds
that are conventionally used as extraction solvents. Therefore, alternative
solvents with more benign and environmentally friendly characteristics
are crucial to develop sustainable citrus essential oil deterpenation
processes. In this work, biorenewable deep eutectic solvents (DES)
composed of glycerol (Gly) and choline chloride (ChCl) are evaluated
as sustainable solvents for citrus essential oil deterpenation, using
model mixtures and real citrus crude orange essential oils (COEO).
The liquid–liquid extraction process for essential oil deterpenation
using DES was performed at 298.15 K and 101.3 kPa, and the solvent
performance was evaluated in terms of the experimental solute distribution
coefficients and selectivity values, which were compared against those
predicted using the conductor-like screening model for real solvents
(COSMO-RS). The effect of solvent composition (i.e., hydrogen bond
acceptor/donor ratio) and the addition of water (pure DES vs diluted
DES) were also explored. Overall results indicate the feasibility
of using DES as extraction solvents for citrus essential oil deterpenation,
with pure ChCl:Gly 1:2 providing the highest extraction yield, while
the addition of water decreased the distribution coefficient but increased
the selectivity of the process.
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