Rate of the vegetable oil extraction with supercritical CO2—I. Modelling of extraction curves

During the extraction from milled vegetable material, the easily accessible solute from the cells opened by milling is extracted first, and the slower extraction of the solute protected by the cell walls follows. Mathematical models based on the assumption of plug flow of supercritical solvent through a fixed bed of milled material were published for both extraction periods. A new model with analytical solution was developed on the basis of these models. Extraction parameters can be evaluated by comparison of extraction curves calculated by the model with experimental data.