MODELING THE EFFECT OF ETHANOL AND HEXANE ON PERCENTAGE OIL YIELD FROM COCONUT: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Abstract

The research was aimed to comparatively study the effects of solvent extractions on three different species of coconut using developed model equations of extraction and experiment conducted. The research was useful for communities in West African countries that are significantly dependent on the financial gain from agrarian enterprise. The study was focused on the comparative performance evaluation of ethanol and hexane solvents on oil recovery from three different species of coconut (tall, dwarf, and hybrid). The effective extraction power was compared based on the quality and efficiency of oil extracted using an equal volume of the respective solvent. The solvent concentration has more effect on increasing oil extraction yield compared to extraction time and extraction temperature. Dwarf coconut species gave more oil than tall and hybrid coconut species with the organic solvents on the different factors affecting the adsorption process of oil from the coconut’s species in terms of selectivity, reliability, and economics of the process. Also, looking at the result quantitatively and not economically, hybrid coconut species gave a high yield of the oil with hexane solvent, then tall and dwarf coconut species respectively.