Development and construction of mini-fluidic flow reactor for solvent extraction of EPA/DHA from fish oil

Abstract

Process intensification for separation of Omega 3 PUFA from fish oil (FO) is necessary to replace conventional and complex processes. Miniaturization is a kind of process intensification for extraction process and the result of reduction of characteristic dimension in mini-channels offers a potential alternative for overcoming bottlenecks in heat & mass transfer and mixing. The performance of extraction in a slug flow based mini-fluidic flow reactor offers enhancement of interfacial area which results in enhanced mass transfer and offering large surface-to-volume ratio. This work explores the development and construction of mini-fluidics plug/slug flow reactor for extraction processes for Omega 3 PUFA. The various components of the flow reactor are described and commented deviated flow patterns in the experimental setup. The performance of extraction of Omega 3 PUFA using silver ions was within a mini-fluidic and practical extraction yields of EPA–Et, DHA-Et approaching 60 to 70 Wt.%. Additionally, Equilibrium was reached in less than 36 seconds in the mini-fluidic reactor at 10°C. Furthermore, it is seen that the reason for stratification of flow is dominant of gravity force than interfacial tension force. The preliminary investigation confirms that silver based solvent extraction of Omega 3 PUFA in mini-fluidic reactor technology is promising and an alternate to other conventional technologies.