The Extraction of Hexadecanoic Acid From Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch Using Supercritical CO2

This paper highlights the conversion study of oil palm empty fruit bunch to bio-oil using supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO₂). While maintaining the amount of feed which is 10g and particle size of less than 150µm, effects of process conditions such as temperature within the range of 60-90̊C, pressure within 25-50 MPa and flow rate of CO₂ within 3-6ml/min are investigated within two hours of extraction time. The product is diluted in 10ml dichloromethane (DCM) for the analysis using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The composition of fatty acid, ester, alcohol and other long chain hydrocarbon varies depending on the process condition. Hexadecanoic acid known as palmitic acid and dodecanoic acid 1, 2, 3-propanetriyl ester are identified as the major components of the bio oil. Approximately about 53% percent of hexadecanoic acid is produced when the temperature and pressure is at the highest value which is 90 ̊C and 50 MPa respectively, while the flow rate of CO₂ is maintained at 5ml/min. When the extraction pressure and flowrate of CO₂ are kept constant at 40MPa and 5ml/min respectively, the amount of hexadecanoic acid obtained reduced with temperature. In addition, the ester composition is increased from 17% to 24% when the temperature is decreased from 80°C to 60°C. At constant temperature and pressure of 70 ̊C and 40 MPa, both amount of ester and hexadecanoic acid reduced when the flow rate of CO₂ is reduced from 6ml/min to 3 ml/min.