Extraction of rubber (hevea brasiliensis) seed oil using supercritical carbon dioxide and soxhlet extraction

This study involved the extraction of rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) seed oil using supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO₂) and Soxhlet techniques. The main aim of this study is to compare the extraction method between SC-CO₂ and Soxhlet extraction. The arrays of operating parameters for supercritical carbon dioxide are temperature and pressure conducted at 40 ^°C, 60^°C and 80^°C and 20MPa, 25MPa and 30MPa respectively. The extraction was also processed under dynamic condition of 180min and carbon dioxide at constant flow rate of 4mL/min. The parameters studied for Soxhlet extraction are due to different solvents and extraction time. Observation was done on the physical characteristics of oil obtained by these two methods where the oil obtained by SC-CO₂ was clean with pleasant smell while the oil produced by Soxhlet method was near to brownish color with white when extracted with polar solvents. The experiment results showed that the extraction of rubber seed oil by SC-CO₂ and Soxhlet extraction gave 33.652% g and 7-12% g respectively. In addition, the extraction time of SC-CO₂ is also shorter than Soxhlet extraction that needs the further process to evaporate solvent. This finding proves that the rubber seed oil produced by SC-CO₂ has superior characteristics and better quality compared to Soxhlet extraction.