Enrichment of β-carotene in palm oil through deacidification using supercritical carbon dioxide

Supercritical carbon dioxide (SCCO 2 ) is a suitable medium for separating phytochemical compounds from various materials. Here, it was employed for crude palm oil (CPO) deacidification to concentrate the β -carotene component. In the semibatch process, SCCO 2 was introduced to CPO feed material at various operating temperatures (40−60 °C) and pressures (15−25 MPa) with a CO 2 flow rate of 3 mL min −1 for 120 min. The results indicate that the extraction yield was significantly affected by varying the operating temperature and/or pressure, and the highest extraction yield was 4.59 % (40 °C, 25 MPa). Under the same operating conditions, the addition of an ethanol entrainer improved the extraction yield to 9.31 %. However, due to the β -carotene enrichment in the raffinate product, the presence of an ethanol solvent in this process introduced challenges.