Oil extraction from olive foot cake with acidic hexane

Abstract

The use of acidic hexane as a solvent increases the extracted oil yield from olive foot cake. Two extraction procedures are studied: open air extraction at room temperature and Soxhlet exhaustive extraction. The additional yield is about 5% for a 2.5% acetic acid content in case of open air extraction and turns out to be 9% for 7.5% acetic acid content in the Soxhlet procedure. An analysis of the extracted oil shows a light increase of the acidity of oil. The improved yield may be attributed to the action of acetic acid on the decomposition of intercellular structures and binding of some polar lipids. The phospholipids content of oil extracted with 7.5% acidic hexane is found to be 25 times more than with pure hexane.