Supercritical extraction of pupunha (Guilielma speciosa) oil in a fixed bed using carbon dioxide

The pupunha (Guilielma speciosa) is the fruit of a palm tree typical of the Brazilian Northern region, whose stem is used as a source of heart of palm . The fruit, which is about 65% pulp, is a source of oil and carotenes. In the present work, an analysis of the kinetics of supercritical extraction o f oil from the pupunha pulp is presented. Carbon dioxide was used as solven t. The extractions were carried out at 25 MPa and 323 K and 30 MPa and 318 K. The chemical composition of the extracts in terms of fatty acids was det ermined by gas chromatography. The amount of oleic acid, a saturated fatty acid, in the CO2 extracts was larger than that in the extract obtained with hexane. The overall extraction curves were modeled using the single-parame ter model proposed in the literature to describe the desorption of toluene from activated coal.