LIMONENE EXTRACTION FROM CITRUS WASTE USING IONIC LIQUIDS

The citrus industry waste is a chemically complex and biodegradable residue that can contain several compounds of interest, such as fermentable sugars, flavonoids, essential oils, among others. So, this residue has great potential to be used as source of valuable products or substrate to produce high added value product. This work had as objective to study the extraction of limonene oil from citric residue using Ionic Liquids (ILs), namely, Propylammonium hexanoate [PA][Hex]; Diethylaminopropylammonium hexanoate [DEAPA][Hex] and Choline hexanoate [Ch][Hex]. For comparison, limonene extraction using organic solvents was also performed. and to compare with the extraction using organic solvents. The extraction of limonene from the ionic liquids presents more efficiently when compared to the extraction of limonene from organic solvent. The ionic liquid Diethylaminopropylammonium Hexanoate obtained the best efficiency in the extraction of limonene.