Research Initiation and Industry/University Cooperative Research Activity: Fluid-Phase Equilibria for Biocompound- Water Elevated Temperatures and Pressures

在高温高压下，得到了水与低挥发性生化化合物(如甾醇和脂肪酸)的混合物的液相平衡。采用带有蓝宝石窗口的观察池的平衡流动装置，用于测量液液平衡组成和混合临界曲线。油酸-水体系的初步结果表明，油酸和水在大约310摄氏度和125bar的温度下完全相容，在这些条件下的热分解和聚合反应很少。使用水来分离生物化合物或其他低挥发性化合物还没有提出，也没有已知这些化合物在高温和压力下与水的溶解度测量。从天然油脂中回收生化化合物对医疗保健、生物技术和特种化学工业具有重要意义。这项工作的长期目的是确定高压萃取工艺的可行性，该工艺将在高温下使用液态水作为溶剂，以分离天然存在于树脂和油中的生物化合物混合物。如果成功，这一过程将1)抑制导致产品损失的不受欢迎的甾醇-酸反应，2)提高现有酸产品的纯度，3)允许将β-谷甾醇作为一种新的、高价值的产品回收。一个成功的过程将导致大量新的生化化合物供应，具有许多潜在的用途，也将使美国Tall石油行业有能力处理不同来源的树木作为其原材料。

The fluid-phase equilibria for mixtures of water with biochemical compounds of low volatility, such as sterols and fatty acids, at elevated temperatures and pressures are obtained. An equilibrium flow apparatus which incorporates a view cell with sapphire windows will be used to measure liquid-liquid equilibrium compositions and mixture critical curves. Preliminary results for the oleic acid-water system indicate that oleic acid and water are completely miscible at approximately 310 Degrees Celsius and 125 bar, and thermal decomposition and polymerization reactions at these conditions are minimal. The use of water to separate biocompounds or other compounds of low volatility has not been proposed and no solubility measurements for such compounds with water at elevated temperatures and pressures are known. The recovery of biochemical compounds from naturally occurring oils is of interest to the health care, biotechnology, and specialty chemical industries. The long term purpose of this work is to determine the feasibility of a high-pressure extraction process which would use liquid water at elevated temperatures as a solvent for separating mixtures of biocompounds which naturally occur in resins and oils. If successful, this process would 1) suppress the undesirable sterol-acid reaction which results in product losses, 2) increase the purity of the existing acid products, and 3) allow one to recover beta- sitosterol as a new, high-value product. A successful process would result in a significant new supply of biochemical compounds with many potential uses and would also give the U.S. tall oil industry the ability to handle a diverse source of trees for their raw materials.