Fractionation of edible oil model mixtures by supercritical carbon dioxide in a packed column. 2. A mass-transfer study

A mixture that partially resembles the distillates obtained from the deodorization process of olive oils was used as a case study to test and develop mass-transfer models valid for supercritical fluid processes. Such models are useful engineering tools that provide a theoretical background for the scale-up of industrial plants. In the first part of this series of papers, the fractionation performance of the model mixture squalene/methyl oleate by supercritical carbon dioxide in a countercurrent packed column containing a corrugated gauze-type structured packing was presented. This second part presents a general correlation for predicting the mass-transfer efficiency of the high-pressure packed column. Several correlations taken from the literature were used and their results compared with the experimentally determined mass-transfer coefficients and holdup. A model formerly developed for distillation columns was found to be valid for our high-pressure system. It was found that the area of the gauze packing effectively used for the mass transfer is important for the improvement of the accuracy of the model.