Thermodynamic parameters for the distillation process in obtaining essential oil from cut fruits

¹ Department of Heat Engineering, University of Food Technologies, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
² Department of Technology of tobacco, sugar, plant, and essential oils, University of Food Engineering, Plovdiv, Bulgaria

Abstract

An experimental steam distillation process was investigated to extract essential oil from cut fruits in a laboratory distillation plant. It was determined that the chemical composition of the obtained primary essential oil. The experiments were performed at three different temperatures of the supplied steam. The thermodynamic parameters (Gibbs energy, enthalpy, and entropy) were calculated. The pressure drop in the distillation apparatus was also measured when the steam was passing through the layer of ground raw material.