Optimisation of squalene from palm oil mesocarp using supercritical carbon dioxide

Abstract

A promising technique of Green Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (SC-CO2) process was developed for the extraction of squalene from palm oil mesocarp. In this study, the green SCCO2 was compared with the conventional Soxhlet extraction for quantify the best extraction method. The independent variables in SC-CO2 were selected as follows: temperature (45-75°C), pressure (16-30 MPa) and CO2 flow rate (2-5 ml/min). The responses are oil yield and the concentration of squalene. On the other hands, the conventional soxhlet extraction condition was type of solvents. Furthermore, the conditions of SC-CO2 extraction for squalene and oil yield were optimized by response surface methodology (RSM) following Box-Behnken Design (BBD). The optimum conditions were at pressure (16 MPa), temperature (45.01°C) and CO2 flow rate (2 ml/min) and the concentration of squalene was 0.506%. Meanwhile for soxhlet extraction method showed the concentration of squalene was 0.143% with chloroform. In overall, the results indicated the green SC-CO2 was the best an alternative technique.