Computer-aided Simulation of Avocado Oil Production in North Colombia

Abstract

Avocado comprises one of the main economic inputs of the North Colombia region; however, this crop is not taken advantage of properly due to a lack of commercial and production process techniques. Generally, the avocado is trading for human consumption, without transformation, or for the development of new products. Avocado pulp is rich in lipids, which becomes a potential oil source. There are diverse techniques for oil extraction, according to the method used application is defined; supercritical fluids extraction and solvents used in the cosmetic industry, otherwise the food industry employs mechanical and physical methods. In this work, avocado oil extraction using hexane simulated in Aspen plus software; hence, compounds that make up the avocado pulp entered into the software in their proper proportion, including fatty acids, carbohydrates, fiber, ash, protein, and moisture. 10,605 t/y of avocado are processed, which must wash and disinfected, crushed, dried before extraction, and finally, the oil is separated from the solvent by distillation and recirculated to the process, where a detailed process is obtained with flows, the composition of all the streams, and operation conditions as pressure and temperature. The simulation shows a total production of 1,000 t/y of avocado oil, with an extraction yield of 65.19 %. In addition, to validate the design and simulation of the process, the properties of some fatty acids have in avocado oil were compared with data reported in the literature.