Optimisation of squalene from palm oil mesocarp using supercritical carbon dioxide

A promising technique of Green Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (SC-CO2) process was developed for the extraction of squalene from palm oil mesocarp. In this study, the green SC-CO2 was compared with the conventional Soxhlet extraction for quantify the best extraction method. The independent variables in SC-CO2 were selected as follows: temperature (45–75 °C), pressure (16–30 MPa) and CO2 flow rate (2–5 ml/min). The responses are oil yield and the concentration of squalene. On the other hands, the conventional soxhlet extraction condition was type of solvents. Furthermore, the conditions of SC-CO2 extraction for squalene and oil yield were optimized by response surface methodology (RSM) following Box-Behnken Design (BBD). The optimum conditions were at pressure (16 MPa), temperature (45.01 °C) and CO2 flow rate (2 ml/min) and the concentration of squalene was 0.506%. Meanwhile for soxhlet extraction method showed the concentration of squalene was 0.143% with chloroform. In overall, the results indicated the green SC-CO2 was the best an alternative technique.