Correlation and estimation of solubilities of fatty acids in supercritical carbon dioxide using solution model approach

In this study, solid solubility data of five fatty acids in supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2) at different temperatures and pressures are correlated using a two-parameter solution model developed from the regular solution model coupled with the Flory-Huggins equation. The developed solution model with fewer parameters yields correlated results comparable to those from commonly used semi-empirical equations. In addition, both parameters in the solution model can be further generalized with the chain length of fatty acids and a new predictive solution model is proposed for solubility prediction. The predictive solution model proposed in this study provides better predicted results and yields average deviation in predicted solubilities of 22.1%. To further apply this solution model to other compounds, solid solubility data of three triglycerides in supercritical CO2 at 313 K are also correlated. After model simplification and generalization, a new predictive solution model for triglycerides is also proposed, which yields average deviation in predicted solubilities of 29.8%. These results demonstrate that the solution model used in this study is applicable for correlation and prediction of solid solubilities of structure-related compounds in supercritical CO2. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.