Extraction and Modeling of Lavender Flower Essential Oil Using Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

Essential oil was extracted from lavender flowers ( Lavandula Stoechas subspecies Cariensis Boiss ) in a semicontinuous system by supercritical CO 2 . Experiments were carried out in the ranges of 8−14 MPa pressures, 308−323 K temperatures, and 1.092−2.184 × 10 -3 kg/min carbon dioxide flow rates. The extraction process was modeled by a quasi-steady-state model as a function of extraction time, flow rate, pressure, and temperature. The model contains only one adjustable parameter, the intraparticle diffusion coefficient (effective diffusivity) D e . The model using the best fit of D e correlates the data satisfactorily.