Separation of α-Tocopherol and Squalene by Pressure Swing Adsorption in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

Tocopherols are the major components of deodorizer distillate, and   one of the most important byproducts of soybean oil from the deodorization step of the soybean refining process. In the past, tocopherols were removed conventionally from the soybean deodorizer distillate using solvent extraction and molecular and vacuum distillation. Recently, supercritical carbon dioxide was tested as an alternative solvent for the separation processing of tocopherols. A separation process for a binary-component model mixture composed of α-tocopherol and squalene was developed using the pressure swing adsorption concept in supercritical carbon dioxide. In the present study, the pressure swing operation between the adsorption step at a lower pressure, and the desorption step at a higher pressure was performed with octadecylsilica (ODS) as adsorbent. The objective of the current work was to experimentally measure the effect of operating parameters such as half-cycle time, pressure ratio, and flow-rate ratio on the produc...