Evaluation of Limonene in sugarcane wax extraction

Limonene as a natural product extraction solvent

“…The first research outcome is that, from fish oil 29 to sugarcane wax 41 to Gutta-Percha, 47 the use of limonene as a natural product extraction solvent offers multiple benefits that go beyond its environmentally benign nature, including superior bioproduct quality and higher extraction yields.…”

“…40 Reporting a price of around $4 kg −1 in Brazil by late 2022, Martinez and co-workers in Brazil recently concluded the use of D-limonene to extract waxes from sugar cane in place of n-hexane peels is not convenient. 41 In detail, the team ascribed the lack of economic viability to the 30% higher amount of energy and 10 times larger amount of acetone in the purification stage required to separate the biobased solvent from the wax and to dry the wax, due to the need to purify a mass of extract 8-9 times larger than that obtained with hexane requiring. These outcomes, regardless of lack of toxicity, lower flammability and safety risks, would prevent its use in place of low cost and easily evaporated n-hexane.…”

Limonene as natural product extraction solvent

“…33 Reporting a price around $4/kg in Brazil by late 2022, Martinez and co-workers in Brazil recently concluded the use of dlimonene to extract waxes from sugar cane in place of n-hexane peels is not convenient. 34 In detail, the team ascribed the lack of economic viability to the 30% higher amount of energy and 10 times larger amount of acetone in the purification stage required to separate the biobased solvent from the wax and to dry the wax, due to the need to purify a mass of extract mass 8-9 times larger than that obtained with hexane requiring. These outcomes, regardless of lack of toxicity, lower flammability and safety risks, would prevent its use in place of low cost and easily evaporated n-hexane.…”

“…These outcomes, regardless of lack of toxicity, lower flammability and safety risks, would prevent its use in place of low cost and easily evaporated n-hexane. 34 However, the use of limonene as extraction solvent affords far better sugarcane wax, because limonene is a much better solvent than hexane, being able to extract also relatively polar molecules. Indeed, the wax extracted with limonene showed a broader melting peak over the 69-73.83 °C range vs. the 76.84°C of the purified wax extracted with hexane, requiring substantially less heat to melt (-111.24 vs. -145.60 J g -1 ).…”

Suitability of Solvent-Assisted Extraction for Recovery of Lipophilic Phytochemicals in Sugarcane Straw and Bagasse

“…In those research works studying the lipid fraction collected from sugarcane biomass, isolation was performed by either supercritical fluids [ 13 ] or by means of Soxhlet with hexane: methanol (20:1 v / v ) [ 15 ], carbon tetrachloride [ 19 ] or acetone (AcO) [ 20 ]. Likewise, limonene can be used as a solvent to extract sugarcane wax thanks to its lower toxicity, flammability and environmental risk when compared to conventional solvents such as n-hexane [ 21 ].…”