Supercritical CO₂ fractionation of omega-3 lipids from fish by-products: Plant and process design, modeling, economic feasibility

Biopharmaceutical, nutraceutical and food sectors are experiencing an increasing market interest in omega-3 concentrates. Fish and fish processing by-products represent the major source of lipids rich in omega-3. The present work focuses on the supercritical CO2 fractionation of fish oil derivatives for obtaining omega-3 concentrates, which seems a promising process given that it allows utilizing low temperatures (well below 100 °C) and it can be performed also at industrial scale. The process was conceived, modeled, and evaluated in terms of the main parameters affecting its performances: solvent to feed ratio, reflux ratio, temperature, and pressure of both the fractionation column and the column head separator. The process was further optimized minimizing its operating costs. The optimum foresaw operating the column at high temperature (80 °C) and pressure (19.5 MPa), which allowed for a reduced reflux ratio (=0.92) and solvent to feed ratio (=63). At these conditions, the process cost per unit product (omega-3 concentrate) turned out to be of about 2.3 €/kg. Finally, the plant was designed for three different throughputs: 10, 100, and 300 kg/h. This allowed estimating the investment costs, in order to outline a preliminary process feasibility evaluation.