Phase equilibria for the removal of ethanol from alcoholic beverages using supercritical carbon dioxide

Abstract The removal of ethanol from alcoholic beverages using supercritical carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) as solvent was studied considering the CO 2  + ethanol + water mixture as model system. The extensive phase equilibria data reported in the literature for this ternary system, together with new experimental data of different CO 2  + alcoholic beverage mixtures, were employed to analyze the effect of temperature and pressure on the phase behavior of the supercritical dealcoholization process. It was demonstrated that phase envelopes and tie-lines of the ternary CO 2  + ethanol + water phase diagram depend on CO 2 density. Thus, different combinations of extraction temperature and pressure can produce the same removal of ethanol from the alcoholic beverage. The GC-EoS thermodynamic model was used to represent phase equilibria behavior and to simulate a countercurrent multistage dealcoholization process. Despite extraction temperature and pressure, at constant CO 2 density almost the same elimination of ethanol was attained and the concentration of ethanol in the dealcoholized product was mainly determined by the ratio between the solvent to beverage flows.