Development of florasol extraction process for cedar oil

这个Engage Plus项目将在UWO的Charpentier实验室和All Natural Products Inc.之间进行，他们是一家位于安大略博尔顿的加拿大公司，专注于精油提取。在我们之前的Engage项目中，我们建立了一个小规模的批量提取系统（100 ml），以检查使用floralsol助溶剂（H134 a）提取雪松油。雪松精油的产量进行了研究，在各种条件下的压力，温度，提取时间，溶剂与样品的比例，地面或切碎的雪松叶，干燥或新鲜的叶子。采用GC-FID和GC-MS分析雪松精油中的主要成分崖柏酮和小茴香酮的含量。结果表明，使用R134 a的florasol提取是一种可行的方法，提供了显着更高的油收率和更好的精油比水蒸气蒸馏。Engage Plus项目将重点研究7 L萃取系统中的萃取过程，这将更密切地研究潜在的商业系统。实验设计（DOE）的方法将进行检查，以比较最佳条件，以前在小批量系统中检查。此外，还将检查各种工艺参数，包括溶剂循环和萃取篮动力学，包括托盘如何定位以及每个托盘上可以放置多少切碎的雪松以优化传质。该项目的目标是表明florasol提取的可行性，并确定潜在的商业采用的最佳参数。

This Engage Plus project will be between the Charpentier lab at UWO and All Natural Products Inc., who are a Canadian company focused on essential oil extraction in Bolton, Ontario. In our previous Engage project we setup a small scale batch extraction system (100 ml) to examine the extraction of cedar oil using floralsol co-solvent (H134a). The yield of cedar essential oil was investigated under various conditions of pressure, temperature, extraction time, solvent-to-sample ratio, ground or chopped cedar leaves, and dried or fresh leaves. The extracted oil was analyzed using GC-FID and GC-MS for thujone and fenchone content which are the two main components of cedar. The results showed that florasol extraction using R134a is a viable approach, providing significantly higher yields of oil and a better ratio of essential oils than steam distillation. The Engage Plus project will focus on examining this extraction process in a 7L extraction system, which will more closely examine a potential commercial system. A design of experiment (DOE) approach will be examined to compare optimum conditions to those previously examined in the small batch system. In addition, various process parameters will be examined including solvent recycle and how extraction basket dynamics including how trays are positioned and how much chopped cedar can be placed on each to optimize mass transfer. The goal of the project is to indicate the feasibility of florasol extraction and to determine the optimum parameters for potential commercial adoption.