The ethanolic extraction of oil from sunflower collets was studied and compared with previous data
where hexane was used as extraction solvent. First, the extractive power of ethanol was determined by
Soxhlet. It gave a higher yield of extracted material, whose content of soluble hexane components (oil
phase) was similar to that obtained with n-hexane. When ethanol was used as solvent, 70% less crystallizable
waxes and at least 38% more tocopherols and phospholipids were extracted. In addition,
ethanol showed great ability to extract sugar, mainly raffinose and sucrose, extracting over 75% of the
initial sugar content.
Then, the kinetics of ethanolic extraction was studied at 50 and 60 C in a batch reactor. At equilibrium
conditions, it was observed that extraction could be limited by the solubility of the extractable material.
Oil effective diffusivities were 9.94 1010 at 50 C and 3.11 109 m2/s at 60 C. From the point of view of
the quality of the obtained products, this work demonstrated the feasibility of using ethanol as an
alternative solvent to hexane in the oil extraction from sunflower collets.