β-Carotene extraction from Dunaliella salina by supercritical CO2

Abstract

This paper reports the results of supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) extraction of β-carotene from Dunaliella salina as potential alternative to conventional organic solvent extraction. In pilot-scale scCO2 experiments, the pressure, temperature, and co-solvent concentration were varied. The supercritical extraction at 500 bar, 70 °C, and 10 wt% ethanol as co-solvent yielded in the highly efficient pigment recovery of over 90%. Techno-economic assessment demonstrated higher energy consumption for the scCO2 extraction that was compensated by lower solvent costs. Thus, comparable pigment production costs to the reference extraction with n-hexane were estimated for the scCO2 process. Due to the green solvent properties of scCO2 and ethanol, this approach is highly promising for extraction of algal biomass in industrial scale.

Oil removal from spent bleaching earth of vegetable oil refinery plant using supercritical carbon dioxide

“…Conversely, the amount of extracted edible oil from the SBE matrix could approach up to 95% when the ethanol solvent as a co-solvent was added in the SCCO 2 extraction system. This proofed that the ethanol co-solvent addition may improve the SCCO 2 solubilizing capacity when it was employed as a solvent to extract the edible oils from the SBE matrix [ 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 ]. Next, it could be elucidated as follows.…”

“…As aforementioned, the main drawback of SCCO 2 is its low polarity when this solvent was used as a medium to isolate the target substance from the solid matrix. In a common practice, the small amount of organic solvent (ethanol) is added as a co-solvent to improve the polarity of SCCO 2 , thereby enhancing the solvating power of SCCO 2 towards the target substances [ 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 ]. This co-solvent is expected to interact strongly with the target substances via dipole-dipole, hydrogen-bonding, and/or other polarity interactions which may result in significant enhancement in the extraction yield.…”

“…Ludwig et al. [ 35 ] also reported that the optimum amount of ethanol addition in the SCCO 2 extraction system as a co-solvent was around 10% when they conducted experiment to obtain functional substance from the Dunaliella salina matrix. Hence, it could be said that the 10% ethanol co-solvent addition in our SCCO 2 extraction system is an optimum amount that can improve the SCCO 2 solubilizing capacity during oil extraction process.…”

The Potential of Marine Microalgae for the Production of Food, Feed, and Fuel (3F)

“…Extraction of carotenoid from Dunaliella salina can be performed by supercritical carbon dioxide [18]. Likewise, ethanolic extraction methods could be used for simultaneous solvent extraction and fractionation of EPA from Nannochloropsis [19].…”

Development of the retrieving technology of carotenoids from pumpkin (Cucurbita SPP.) pulp using Zn-Al layered double hydroxides

“…The main disadvantages of organic solvent extraction are the need to use large volumes of flammable liquid, the need for its regeneration, and a rather high residual solvent content. These shortcomings can be avoided by using supercritical CO 2 as an extractant in the extraction of β-carotene [18] and lycopene [19]. However, the application of CO 2 supercritical fluid requires the use of complex equipment, which is badly scaled.…”