(342c) Development of a Green Integrated Continuous Extraction-Reaction Process Using Supercritical Carbon Dioxide for Value-Added Processing of Tomato Processing Waste

The tomato processing industry generates large amounts of waste that contain lycopene, but lycopene extraction requires use of hazardous and toxic solvents. Hence, there is a need for clean methods to enrich lycopene from tomato waste. An integrated inline extraction-reaction process based on supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO₂) was developed. Tomato waste was extracted by SC-CO₂ and the extract and SC-CO₂ mixture entered an inline packed bed bioreactor packed with immobilized lipase (Novozym 435). In the bioreactor, the lycopene-containing oil-rich extract and ethanol was put into an alcoholysis reaction by pumping ethanol into the bioreactor to convert triacylglycerols (oil) into fatty acid ethyl esters to separate lycopene from the extract. The maximum lycopene extract yield (1.32 mg/kg) was obtained at 80 °C/50 MPa and 70/30 peel/seeds ratio based on mathematical modeling using mass conservation law. The lycopene yield had a direct relationship with external mass transfer coefficient, but inverse relationship with the partition coefficient of the solute between the solid and the fluid phase. In the bioreactor, lower ethanol flow rate (0.05 mL/min) significantly increased separation of lycopene (4000 mg/100 g) (p<0.05). A novel integrated extraction-reaction process to separate a bioactive from a waste, then purify the high-value bioactive was developed. The process does not use toxic chemicals and solvents, minimizes waste generation, and maximizes utilization of bioactives from agricultural products. This is a first step to developing integrated green supercritical fluid biorefineries. Therefore, the objective of this study was to engineer an integrated, green process to extract and enrich lycopene from the waste of the tomato processing industry.