Solubility of fatty acids in supercritical carbon dioxide

Supercritical CO2 Extraction of Fatty Acids, Phytosterols, and Volatiles from Myrtle (Myrtus communis L.) Fruit

BACKGROUND

Myrtle (Myrtus communis L.) is a coastal Mediterranean aromatic medicinal plant rich in essential oil components, flavonoids, and phenolic acids. Studies highlight the potential health benefits of myrtle bioactive compounds with antioxidant and antiproliferative properties. Since limited research exists on myrtle fruit's lipid fraction, the aim of this study was to apply supercritical CO2 extraction to obtain bioactive compounds from myrtle berries focusing on the fatty acids, sterols, and essential oils.

METHODS

The optimization of the supercritical CO2 extraction of myrtle fruit using CO2 as solvent was carried out using the response surface methodology with Box-Behnken experimental design. The following conditions were tested: temperature (40, 50, and 60 °C), pressure (200, 300, and 400 bar), and flow rate (20, 30, and 40 g min-1) on the yield of lipid extract as well as on the yield of fatty acids, phytosterols, and volatiles present in the extract and constituting its bioactive potential.

RESULTS

In the extracts examined, 36 fatty acids, 7 phytosterols, and 13 volatiles were identified. The average yield of the extract was 5.20%, the most abundant identified fatty acid was essential cis-linolenic acid (76.83%), almost 90% of the total phytosterols were β-sitosterol (12,465 mg kg-1), while myrtenyl acetate (4297 mg kg-1) was the most represented volatile compound. The optimal process conditions obtained allow the formulation of extracts with specific compositions.

Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Extraction of Lignocellulosic Bio-Oils: The Potential of Fuel Upgrading and Chemical Recovery

Bio-oils derived from the thermochemical processing of lignocellulosic biomass are recognized as a promising platform for sustainable biofuels and chemicals. While significant advances have been achieved with regard to the production of bio-oils by hydrothermal liquefaction and pyrolysis, the need for improving their physicochemical properties (fuel upgrading) or for recovering valuable chemicals is currently shifting the research focus towards downstream separation and chemical upgrading. The separation of lignocellulosic bio-oils using supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) as a solvent is a promising environmentally benign process that can play a key role in the design of innovative processes for their valorization. In the last decade, fundamental research has provided knowledge on supercritical extraction of bio-oils. This review provides an update on the progress of the research in sCO2 separation of lignocellulosic bio-oils, together with a critical interpretation of the observed effects of the extraction conditions on the process yields and the quality of the obtained products. The review also covers high-pressure phase equilibria data reported in the literature for systems comprising sCO2 and key bio-oil components, which are fundamental for process design. The perspective of the supercritical process for the fractionation of lignocellulosic bio-oils is discussed and the knowledge gaps for future research are highlighted.

Separation and Purification of ω-6 Linoleic Acid from Crude Tall Oil

Crude tall oil (CTO) is the third largest by-product at kraft pulp and paper mills. Due the large presence of value-added fatty and resin acids, CTO has a huge valorization potential as a biobased, readily available, non-food, and low-cost biorefinery feedstock. The objective of this work was to present a method for the isolation of high-value linoleic acid (LA), an omega (ω)-6 essential fatty acid, from CTO using a combination of pretreatment, fractionation, and purification techniques. Following the distillation of CTO to separate the tall oil fatty acids (TOFAs) from CTO, LA was isolated and purified from TOFAs by urea complexation (UC) and low-temperature crystallization (LTC) in the temperature range between −7 and −15 °C. The crystallization yield of LA from CTO in that range was 7.8 w/w at 95.2% purity, with 3.8% w/w of ω-6 γ-linolenic acid (GLA) and 1.0% w/w of ω-3 α-linolenic (ALA) present as contaminants. This is the first report on the isolation of LA from CTO. The approach presented here can be applied to recover other valuable fatty acids. Furthermore, once the targeted fatty acid(s) are isolated, the rest of the TOFAs can be utilized for the production of biodiesel, biobased surfactants, or other valuable bioproducts.

Experimental solubilities of two lipid derivatives in supercritical carbon dioxide and new correlations based on activity coefficient models

Solubilities of 10-undecen-1-ol and geranyl butyrate were determined and correlated based on new models by combinations of solution/association theories.

Utilization of Stearic acid Extracted from Olive Pomace for Production of Triazoles, Thiadiazoles and Thiadiazines Derivatives of Potential Biological Activities

Olive Pomace was firstly dried, then pomace olive oil was extracted, and the obtained oil was hydrolyzed to produce glycerol and mixture of fatty acids. Fatty acids mixture was separated, this mixture was then cooled, where the all saturated fatty acids were solidified, and then they were filtered off. These saturated fatty acids were identified by GC mass after esterification, and were identified as stearic, palmitic and myristic acids. Stearic acid was extracted using supercritical CO2 extractor. The stearic acid was confirmed by means of GC mass after its esterification, and it was used as starting material for preparation of a variety of heterocyclic compounds, which were then tested for their antimicrobial activities. Thus the long-chain fatty acid hydrazide (2) was prepared from the corresponding long-chain fatty ester with hydrazine hydrate. Reacting 2 with phenyl isothiocyanate afforded the corresponding thiosemicarbazide 4. The later 4 underwent intramolecular cyclization in basic medium, and gave the s-triazole derivative 5, which was methylated and afforded 3-heptadecanyl-5-(methylthio)-4-phenyl-4H-1,3,4-triazole (7), which was then treated with hydrazine hydrate and afforded the corresponding 1-(5-heptadecanyl-4-phenyl-4H-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl) hydrazine (8).On the other hand, thiosemicarbazide 4 underwent intramolecular cyclization in acid medium and afforded the corresponding thiadiazole derivative 6.Treatment of thiosemicarbazide 4 with ethyl chloro(arylhydrazono) acetate derivatives 9a-b, furnished a single product 13 (Scheme 6). Similarly, when the thiosemicarbazide 4 was treated with the phenylcarbamoylarylhydrazonyl chloride 10a-c, it afforded (3-Aryl-N-5-(phenylcarbamoyl)-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2(3H)-ylidene)octadecanehydrazide 15a-c (Scheme 7). Also the reaction of thiosemicarbazide 4 with 2-oxo-N-arylpropanehydrazonoyl chlorides 11a-c and N-phenylbenzohydrazonoyl chloride 11d gave the corresponding thiadiazole derivatives 16a-d as shown in Scheme 8. A solution of thiosemicarbazide 4 was treated with the haloketones 17a-c, afforded the thiadiazine derivatives 20a-c, as shown in Scheme 9. Analogously, the thiosemicarbazide 4 was reacted with α-haloketones 21a-b and afforded the corresponding products 22a-b (Scheme 9). The structure elucidation of all synthesized compounds is based on the elemental analysis and spectral data (IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR and MS).

Extraction of lipids from microalgae using CO2-expanded methanol and liquid CO2

The use of CO2-expanded methanol (cxMeOH) and liquid carbon dioxide (lCO2) is proposed to extract lipids from Botryococcus braunii. When compressed CO2 dissolves in methanol, the solvent expands in volume, decreases in polarity and so increases in its selectivity for biodiesel desirable lipids. Solid phase extraction of the algal extract showed that the cxMeOH extracted 21 mg of biodiesel desirable lipids per mL of organic solvent compared to 3mg/mL using either neat methanol or chloroform/methanol mixture. The non-polar lCO2 showed a high affinity for non-polar lipids. Using lCO2, it is possible to extract up to 10% neutral lipids relative to the mass of dry algae. Unlike extractions using conventional solvents, these new methods require little to no volatile, flammable, or chlorinated organic solvents.