FRACTIONATION PROCESS OF ESSENTIAL OILS BY BATCH DISTILLATION

Abstract The greatest obstacle in simulating processes involving essential oils is the small number of thermo-physical properties and experimental data available in the literature. In this work, thermodynamic models are investigated in order to predict such properties, which are requisites for the modelling and simulation of the Eucalyptus essential oil batch distillation processes. A group contribution method was used to predict the vapor pressure (CSGC-PVR) when experimental data were unavailable. Regarding the activity coefficients, a fully predictive model based on quantum calculations (COSMO-SAC) is used. Moreover, this work also uses those predicted properties in a dynamic model, capable of describing the fractionation process by batch distillation. The simulations were performed in the equation-oriented simulator EMSO to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method. The proposed method suggests a simulated recovery of a 98.89% eucalyptol fraction from E. globulus and a 98.53% citronellal fraction from E. citriodora.