Extraction of oils from agro-industrial waste using supercritical fluids: technical-environmental and scalability assessment

Abstract

The use of agroindustrial waste represents an environmentally friendly and economically useful strategy. This study addressed the limited use of lucuma seeds, as well as grape seeds, for obtaining functional oils. Supercritical CO2 extraction was applied under different pressure and temperature conditions, also evaluating environmental indicators such as atomic efficiency and mass productivity. The results showed variable yields: 2.83% in lucuma (31.6 MPa atm and 318 K) and 6.8% in grapes (45 MPa and 333 K). Atomic efficiency reached 0.85 and mass productivity 0.325, with the cleaning of lucuma seeds identified as a critical stage due to its high effluent generation. Overall, the findings confirm the technical and environmental feasibility of the process, which is emerging as a cleaner alternative to conventional methods and is geared towards the sustainable use of non-metallic materials of biological origin