Journal of the Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers, 33(2), 2018 29 EXTRACTION, CHARACTERIZATION AND KINETIC MODELS OF OILS FROM LUFFA CYLINDRICA AND HURA CREPITAN SEEDS Dagde, K. K. 1 and Okure, U. E. 2 1,2 Department of Chemical/Petrochemical Engineering, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, River State, Nigeria. dagde.kenneth@ust.edu.ng ABSTRACT Present study depicts possibility of extracting oils from Hura crepitan and Luffa cylindrical seeds by soxhlet extraction process, using normal hexane as solvent at different temperature, particle size and extraction time. The oils extracted were separated from oil-solvent mixture by distillation. Physicochemical analysis of the refined oils showed saponification values of 132.45 and 290.32 mgKOH/g, acid values of 12.62 and 27.21 mg KOH/g; iodine values of 3.33 and 176.89 g/100g; viscosity (at 15 °C) of 2.43cp and 3.40cp; refractive index of 1.42 and 1.43; flash point of 128°C and 130°C; specific gravity of 0.93 and 0.94; and moisture content of 6.61% and 8.11% for Hura crepitan and Luffa cylindrical seeds respectively. These results indicated that Hura crepitan oil was highly unsaturated making it suitable for industrial applications as compared with oil from Luffa cylindrica . Maximum percent yields of oils were obtained at 60 O C, extraction time of 80 mins using 40g of grounded seeds, 0.425mm particle size and 200ml of normal hexane. The kinetics of oils extracted were derived from mass transfer rate equation and power index model and were found to fit reasonably well with the power index model kinetics with mass transfer co-efficient of 0.044min -1 for mass transfer model and 0.0736min -1 for the power index model. Keywords: Solvent Extraction, Characterization, Kinetics, Luffa cylinderica and Hura crepitan. 1. INTRODUCTION The need for diversification of the economy and calls by Nigerian citizens for the National Assembly to pass into law, the local content bill came at the right time, as the Nation’s economy continue to dwindle. This desire has necessitated the Federal Government to place ban on the importation of most foreign products, including vegetable oil. Nigeria is blessed with diverse sources of vegetable oil (Dawodu, 2009). In searching for more sources of vegetable oil, Luffa cylindrica and Hura crepitan were investigated in this research. Luffa cylindrical is commonly known as sponge gourd. It is cylindrical in shaped with smooth surface, which climbs on other plants or materials while growing and produces an average of 33 seeds per fruit. Luffa cylindrica is a sub-tropical plant, which requires warm summer temperatures and long frost-free growing season when grown in temperate regions (Partap et al., 2012). While the Hura crepitan also known as sand box is a seed from sand box trees which are commonly planted to provide shade. The three common methods by which oil is extracted from its oil bearing higher seeds are: mechanical pressing, supercritical fluid extraction, and solvent extraction. Solvent extraction method gives higher percentage yield and less turbid oil than mechanical extraction and a low operating cost in relation to supercritical fluid extraction method (Dhellot et al., 2006). Hexane is often used as solvent for oil extraction due to its low boiling points for easy separation after extraction, its non polar nature and its comparatively low toxicity when compared to other solvents. Soxhlet extraction, percentage yield and quality of oil, characterization, kinetics and thermodynamic studies of several oil bearing seeds in Niger Delta, Nigeria have been investigated by several researchers; Akpabio et al. (2011), Orhevba and Jinadu (2011) did extraction of oil from Dacryodes edulis (Native pear) and Persea Americana (Avocado pear) fruits; Nwabanne (2012) did extraction on fluted pumpkin seed; Jabar et al., (2015 and 2016) did extraction of thevetia peruviana from its oil bearing seed. Most of the oils were investigated for the production of biodiesel (Abdullah et al., 2013). This research centres on the use of soxhlet extraction method to extract oil from Luffa cylidrica and Hura crepitan seeds using hexane as the extracting solvent. The effects of temperature, extraction time, particle size on percentage yield of oils were studied. The physiochemical parameters and kinetic models of the soxhlet extraction process were investigated.