Tuesday, November 6, 2007
326r

Dynamic Model of a Sfe Plant for the Extraction of Squalene from Olive Oil Residues

João B. Fernandes, Pedro C. Simões, and J. P. B. Mota. Departamento de Química, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia - Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Quinta da Torre, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal

A dynamic model of a supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) process plant is shown and applied to the fractionation of a binary mixture model of Methyl Oleate and Squalene. The supercritical solvent used in this separation is carbon dioxide. This model combines a mathematic model for each one of the process main pieces of equipment namely: the countercurrent packed extraction column, the separation column for oil recovery and solvent regeneration, the heat exchanger used to pre-heat the solvent stream, the pump used to compress the gas and the solvent make-up. To access the effect of disturbances on main process variables, perturbations were applied on pre-specified operating parameters as: feed composition, solvent mass flow rate, extraction and separation temperatures and pressures. The best set of process parameters was also determined with the help of the Dynamic Optimization Module of gPROMS simulator. A good agreement was obtained between experimental and predicted results. The dynamic model was found to accurately predict the outlet streams compositions and temperatures along the process of all the case studies.