APPLICATION OF EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN METHOD TO THE OIL EXTRACTION FROM OLIVE CAKE

Olive cake is an important solid waste of the olive oil production. It still contains a certain quantity of oil that can be recovered by means of solvent extraction. In this study, two-level full factorial design was performed to evaluate the effects of four variables and their interactions on the oil extraction by the ethanol 96.0% in a batch reactor. The variables included size of particles, temperature, and time of contact and solvent-to-solids ratio. The statistical analysis of the experimental data showed that the extracted oil mass depends on all the examined variables. It also depends on the interactions between size of particles and solvent-to-solid ratio and size of particles and temperature. The experimental data were in good agreement with those predicted by the model.