Abstract—Experimental and thermodynamic modeling studies of liquid-liquid equilibria for two model systems of β-carotene and γ-tocotrienol in palm oil + ethyl lactate were performed at 303.15 K and atmospheric pressure in an effort to explore the potential application of ethyl lactate as a green and safe agrochemical solvent to recover carotenes and tocols from palm oil. The experimental data were correlated by Universal QuasiChemical (UNIQUAC) model while the thermodynamic data enables simulation of liquid-liquid extractors for phytonutrients recovery from palm oil as well as the prediction of energy requirement, equipment sizing and phase compositions for the oil- and solvent-rich phases. The results showed that ethyl lactate favors the extraction of phytonutrients from palm oil especially tocols due to their higher polarity and separation factors as compared to carotenes.
Index Terms—Carotene, ethyl lactate, palm oil, tocol.
Yin Leng Kua, Suyin Gan, Andrew Morris, and Hoon Kiat Ng are with the University of Nottingham, Malaysia (e-mail: kebx4kye@nottingham.edu.my, suyin.gan@nottingham.edu.my, morris.andrew@nottingham.edu.my, hoonkiat.ng@nottingham.edu.my).
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Cite: Y. L. Kua, S. Gan, A. Morris, and H. K. Ng, "Liquid-Liquid Equilibrium Data for the Ternary Systems of Palm Oil + Ethyl Lactate + Phytonutrients (Carotenes and Tocols) at 303.15 K," International Journal of Chemical Engineering and Applications vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 215-220, 2017.
