Liquid-liquid extraction of aroma compounds with hollow fiber contactor

The extraction of aroma compounds through a commercial hollow-fiber contactor from model aqueous feeds to sunflower oil was tested. The stripping efficiency of this membrane-based solvent extraction operation was systematically studied as a function of the oil/water partition coefficient of the permeants, and the flow and location of the feeds in the contactor (in the shell side or in the lumen of the fibers). The mass transfer between the two phases was modeled based oil the resistances-in-series approach. In particular, a correlation describing the mass transfer with a transverse flow in the shell is proposed. With similar operating conditions, the stripping of the aroma compounds was more efficient when flowing the aqueous feed phase in the shell side than inside the fibers.