in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com).Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction to separate phytosterol esters from fatty acid esters and tocopherols was simulated and optimized using the group contribution equation of state. Experimental extraction data at 328 K, pressures ranging from 200 to 280 bar and solvent-to-feed ratio around 25, was employed to verify the performance of the thermodynamic model. The raw material is the product obtained after a twostep enzymatic reaction carried out on soybean oil deodorizer distillates, and contains mainly fatty-acid ethyl esters, tocopherols and phytosterol esters. The extraction process was simulated using model substances to represent the complex multicomponent feed material. Nonlinear programming techniques were applied to find out optimal process conditions for a steady-state countercurrent process with partial reflux of the extract. The process optimization procedure predicts that a product with 94.2 wt % of phytosterol ester purity and 80% yield could be achieved. 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 55: 1023AIChE J, 55: -1029AIChE J, 55: , 2009 Keywords: phytosterol esters, countercurrent extraction, phase equilibria, supercritical process, group contribution Introduction Plant sterols, stanols and their esters have received increasing attention during the last decade because of their beneficial physiological functions in humans. [1][2][3][4] In general, esterified sterols and stanols are preferred than their free forms. 5 The practical applications of free phytosterols in foods are limited by their low solubility in lipid-type foods, their crystalline structure and their easy reactivity. For example, the solubility of phytosterols in edible oils is very low (2-3%), while their melting points are rather high (413-423 K). 4 Esterification of phytosterols can be used to produce a more soluble product, which can be incorporated in fat-based products, but maintaining phytosterol bioefficiency.In previous work, 6 soybean oil deodorizer distillate (SODD) was enzymatically modified to obtain a product mixture containing mainly phytosterol esters, tocopherols, and fatty acid ethyl esters. Then, carbon dioxide supercritical fluid extraction (CO 2 -SFE) of this mixture was employed in order to produce a raffinate product comprised mainly of phytosterol esters.7 SFE demonstrated to be an efficient fractionation process, since a raffinate product with 82.4 wt % of phytosterol esters at 250 bar, 328 K and solvent-to-feed ratio of 35 was obtained in a one-meter packed column (without reflux).This work presents the thermodynamic modeling of the countercurrent CO 2 -SFE process of a raw material comprising phytosterol esters, tocopherols and fatty acid ethyl esters (the enzymatic modified SODD). The analysis carried out in our laboratory provided the following composition (weight basis): fatty-acid ethyl esters (FAEE) 30.0%, tocopherols (TOC) 17.5%, phytosterol esters (PE) 38.6% and minor amounts of triacylglycerides (4.2%), squalene (3.3%), free f...