Lemon Oil / Limonene Extraction

[nickmccabe]

I need assistance with basic flowsheet / mass balance and equipment requirement details for production of lemon oil and d-limonene from whole lemons. Any advice on novel and cost effective methods, as well as traditional, would be welcome.

 

[camabee]

You want novel alternatives, consider supercritical fluid extraction for direct separation of target compound groups. Batch processing is a realistic possibility (eg. coffee decafination with CO2) if the product value is high enough and the batch size reasonable for pressure vessel sizing.