Food and Bioproducts Processing 1 2 2 ( 2 0 2 0 ) 311–321 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Food and Bioproducts Processing j ourna l ho me page: www.elsevier.com/locate/fbp Modelling and simulation of supercritical CO 2 extraction of bioactive compounds from vegetable oil waste Parisa Jafarian Asl, Razieh Niazmand * Department of Food Chemistry, Research Institute of Food Science and Technology (RIFST), Mashhad, Iran a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 4 December 2019 Received in revised form 1 May 2020 Accepted 18 May 2020 Available online 16 June 2020 Keywords: Oil deodorizer distillate Supercritical fluid extraction Tocopherols Phytosterols Multicomponent simulation Rapseed oil a b s t r a c t Deodorizer distillates are waste by-product from vegetable oil industries. It has excellent potential as a source of bioactive compounds. Therefore, the aim of this study was to model the thermodynamic phase equilibrium and optimize the supercritical CO 2 extraction processes for concentrating valuable minor components from rapeseed oil deodorizer dis- tillates (RODD). The extraction was done in a countercurrent extraction column at pressure (35−40 MPa), temperature (313 K) and solvent to feed mass ratio (S/F) of 5. The raw material employed was initially saponified. Investigating the extraction process, representing phase equilibria behavior of the multicomponent oil-type material/CO 2 mixture and prediction the steady-state efficiency of the extractor was done by using the Stryjek–Vera Peng–Robinson equation of state as a thermodynamic model for the experimental bubble pressures and vapor compositions. The extraction of -sitosterol and vitamin E in the saponified RODD at predicted conditions showed a recovery of 76 wt% with a purity of 60 wt% and a recovery of 85 wt% with a purity of 75 wt% respectively. Furthermore, the use of a modified sample increased the phytosterol and tocopherol efficiency and purity. The absolute average relative deviation between the theoretical and experimental was within the range of 1–12%, which is considered as a good agreement. The coupling of thermodynamic modeling with experi- mental work offered an efficient and rapid tool for analyzing the viability of the supercritical extraction. © 2020 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Oil deodorizer distillates (ODDs) are edible oil processing by-products with high value-added compounds such as phytosterols, tocopherols, and squalene (Naz, 2012). These high value compounds can be iso- lated from the distillates, having significant commercial applications in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. The public request has also increased for healthy products made with natural additives benefi- cial to human health. Rapeseed oil deodorizer distillates (RODDs) have excellent potential as a source of these substances and have attracted industrial attention due to the economic benefits of isolating these valuable components (Asl et al., 2020). Phytosterols (Fig. 1a) have anticancer properties and help lower blood cholesterol by impeding the colonic absorption of cholesterol. The value of a deodorizer distillate is mainly specified by its con- ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: r.niazmand@rifst.ac.ir (R. Niazmand). tent of tocopherols (vitamin E) (Shoaib, 2019). Tocopherols are found in oilseeds; these substances are natural antioxidants with vitamin E activity (Fig. 1b). Vitamin E is typically a mixture of four isomers, namely alpha (), beta (), gamma () and delta ( ) tocopherols. The low availability of phase equilibrium data for intricate systems (multicomponent mixtures) is one of the most important difficulties of actual separation. Accordingly, it seems necessary to create a ther- modynamic database for research on the fractionation of compounds from oil. In the past few years, excellent attempts have been done in this field, with much data being published in the literature. Neverthe- less, a small number of papers have investigated the phase equilibrium of multiple systems such as oils and fats in SC−CO 2 (Asl et al., 2019)· Thermodynamic models (state equations) are used to predict phase equilibrium data at high pressures (Araujo and Meireles, 2000). To calculate the distribution coefficients, the separation factor, and the solubility of the adjacent phase constituents in multiple systems, the measurement of phase equilibrium in systems that involve mul- ticomponent and supercritical fluid is essential at a wide range of temperatures and pressures. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fbp.2020.05.005 0960-3085/© 2020 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.