Experimental approach versus COSMO-RS assisted solvent screening for predicting the solubility of rapeseed oil

Vegetable oils take a large part in industry for food and non-food applications. However the extraction process of oil from oilseeds includes a solvent extraction step using hexane. Despite its various advantages it presents numerous drawbacks; it is sourced from petroleum, it has a high flammability and it appears to be dangerous for health and environment (CMR2). This study presents a theoretical screening using COSMO-RS simulations of the relative solubility of vegetable oil constituents regarding several bio-based solvents as well as an experimental screening of the efficiency of these solvents. The aim is to correlate simulations and experiments and give a preliminary evaluation for the substitution of hexane by bio-based solvents for the extraction of vegetable oils. Differences between theory and practice have been noticed for several solvents such as terpenes that appeared to be good candidates in theory and that were in fact the solvents that gave the lowest extraction yield.