Technical-economic evaluation of obtaining lucuma and grape oil with the use of Supercritical Fluid

Abstract

Waste from the agribusiness that processes lucuma and grapes is taken for oil extraction using supercritical fluid technology in which the performance and operating parameters such as pressure and temperature are evaluated. Finally, a technical-economic and environmental evaluation is carried out with the help of Super Pro Designer v.10 software. The results have shown that the optimal parameters for the extraction of lucuma oil, the highest yield was obtained at 312 atm of pressure and 45°C, with a CO2 flow of 8 ft3 /h, being the percentage obtained 2.8355%. and for the extraction of grape oil is given at a pressure of 450 bar and 60 °C, and a CO2 flow of 5 ft3/h which gives us an experimental yield of 6.861%. When performing the economic evaluation we have the profitability selling all the by-products which are: Lucuma pericarp, ground lucuma seed without oil, grape peel, ground grape seed without oil. Being the main products lucuma and grape oil and to build a plant with a capacity of 1750 Kg/batch for the processing of the raw material we need to invest 6,361,000 US$, this generates an annual operating cost of 4'499,000 US$, this plant The processing can offer us a profit margin of 31.62 %, Return on investment of 23.04 %, Capital recovery time of 4.34 years and an IRR of 15.23 % and NPV (at 7% discount rate) US$ 4,123,000.D