Techno‐Economic Evaluation of d‐Limonene and α‐Pinene Separation from Citrus and Turpentine Oils

• Published in: Chemical engineering & technology 2020-11, Vol.43 (11), p.2295-2306
• Main Authors: Becerra, Jaime-Andrés, Villa, Aída-Luz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Capital operating expenses; Cost analysis; Distillation; Economics; Essential oils; Fractional distillation; Industrial wastes; Limonene; Oils & fats; Separation; Turpentine; Turpentine oil; α‐Pinene
• ISSN: 0930-7516; 1521-4125
• DOI: 10.1002/ceat.201900691

The evaluation of the technical and economic separation of the monoterpenes α‐pinene and d‐limonene from essential oils, carried out by computational simulation of the vacuum fractional distillation in continuous and batch mode from samples of turpentine and citrus oils, was developed using Aspen Plus® software combined with estimations of operational expenses (OPEX) and capital expenses (CAPEX) based on the Guthrie method. The production of d‐limonene and α‐pinene with high purity from the essential oils is a technically feasible process. From the economic point of view and based on the average annual import costs of turpentine and orange oils in Colombia, it was found that the selling prices of α‐pinene and d‐limonene obtained from the distillation module cost analysis depend on the daily production and can be minimized if essential oils are preliminary extracted from local industrial wastes. A techno‐economic analysis of d‐limonene and α‐pinene purification from citrus and turpentine oils through computational simulation of vacuum distillation combined with estimations of operating and capital expenses is a feasible process. The selling prices of α‐pinene and d‐limonene depend on the daily production and can be minimized if essential oils are extracted from local industrial wastes.