Influence of pre treatment of biomass in supercritical CO2 extraction: conservation of high asset value added and process cost reduction

Abstract

Turmeric (Curcuma longa L.), ginger (Zingiber officinale) and babassu (phalerata Orbignya) are substances that are of great interest in the food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics industry. Brazil is among the largest producers and exporters of the world, but to date there is no biorefinery in the country that separate the assets of biomass so they can be offered to domestic industries. This has caused a deficit of billions of dollars a year in the Brazilian economy. On the international scene, there are several industries where the production of fractionated oils and oleoresins are held by non-green technologies, such as by distillation and organic solvents. These processes, in addition to the large energy expenditure, endanger human health, the environment and the quality and degradation of various bioactive of commercial interest. Alternatively, the supercritical fluid technology allows to obtain extracts, oleoresins and bioactive fractions without compromising the environment and human health. Pretreatment is an essential step to preserve the constituents of the oils and flavors and reduce costs for the extraction of bioactive. Thus, in this work we will study the influence of pre-treatment for the natural sources selected using methods that preserve the high value-added components during drying and grinding. Is expected to achieve a significant reduction in losses of the main constituents in the fresh biomass, particularly in the case of turmeric and ginger (preservation increase above 50%) and by kinetic experiments (in various particle sizes) reducing the extraction time and improve the process yield before use by fractional supercritical CO2. (AU)