Advances in mathematical modeling of supercritical extraction processes
Apstrakt
A new trend in mathematical modeling of supercritical extraction process from plant material is presented. The most of the previously published models considered properties of the fixed bed of plant material during the extraction to be constant. This assumption might be quite true in the case of plant materials with relatively low quantity of extractables. However, the fixed bed property change may occur in the case of extraction from material with high quantities of extractables. Recently, mathematical model which took into account particle density, bed porosity and particle diameter as variables was derived. In this chapter, the model is further improved by introducing variable solubility of the extract in supercritical fluid. On the basis of new experimental results on the binary equilibrium of the system supercritical fluid - extract present in solid, a relationship between solubility in supercritical fluid and oil content in solid was established. The new model was derived which t...