Supercritical extraction of oleaginous: Parametric sensitivity analysis

The economy has become universal and competitive, thus the industries of ve getable oil extraction must advance in the sense of minimising production c osts and, at the same time, generating products that obey more rigorous pat terns of quality, including solutions that do not damage the environment. T he conventional oilseed processing uses hexane as solvent. However, this so lvent is toxic and highly flammable. Thus the search of substitutes for hex ane in oleaginous extraction process has increased in the last years. The s upercritical carbon dioxide is a potential substitute for hexane, but it is necessary more detailed studies to understand the phenomena taking place i n such process. Thus, in this work a diffusive model for semi-continuous (b atch for the solids and continuous for the solvent) isothermal and isobaric extraction process using supercritical carbon dioxide is presented and sub mitted to a parametric sensitivity analysis by means of a factorial design in two levels. The model parameters were disturbed and their main effects a nalysed, so that it is possible to propose strategies for high performance operation.