abstract
Background: The deterpenation of citrus essential oils (CEO) is crucial in many industries to promote the stability and preserve the organoleptic properties of the final product, improving considerably the oxygenated fraction purity. Methods: Two imidazolium ionic liquids (ILs), [C4mim][OAc] and [C4mim]Cl, were applied as novel separation agents in a deterpenation process constituted by an extractive distillation column and a flash separator unit, aiming to remove hydrocarbon terpenes from the essential oil. The CEO was modeled as a mixture of the commonly found limonene (monoterpene) and linalool (monoterpenoid). To support the process simulation, isobaric vapor-liquid equilibrium measurements were conducted for the binary limonene/linalool and ternary limonene/linalool/IL mixtures at 5 kPa, and the data were successfully correlated with the NRTL model. Significant findings: The simulation results demonstrate that [C4mim]Cl improved the purity of linalool in the final product. Moreover, both [C4mim]Cl and [C4mim][OAc] reduced the required stages in the distillation column to obtain a terpeneless CEO with a certain purity, [C4mim]Cl being the most effective option.
keywords
ETHANOL-WATER SYSTEM; EQUILIBRIA; MIXTURES; 2,2,4-TRIMETHYLPENTANE; FRACTIONATION; SEPARATION
subject category
Engineering
authors
Vilas-Boas, SM; Batista, FRM; Dias, RM; Coutinho, JAP; Ferreira, O; da Costa, MC; Pinho, SP
our authors
Sérgio Vilas Boas
Collaborator
Simão Pedro de Almeida Pinho
CollaboratorProjects
CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials (UIDB/50011/2020)
CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials (UIDP/50011/2020)
Associated Laboratory CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials (LA/P/0006/2020)
acknowledgements
This work was developed within the scope of the project CICECO Aveiro Institute of Materials, UIDB/50011/2020, UIDP/50011/2020 and LA/P/0006/2020, and CIMO-Mountain Research Center, UIDB/00690/2020 and SusTEC (LA/P/0007/2020) , financed by national funds through the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) /MCTES. The work was also funded in part by The Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) , grants 163506/2020-5 and 306666/2020-0, and in part by the Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) , grant 2014/21252-0. Sergio M. Vilas-Boas thanks FCT and the European Social Fund (ESF) for his Ph.D. grant (SFRH/BD/138149/2018 and COVID/BD/152936/2022) .