Applicability of Subcritical Water Treatment on Oil Seeds to Enhance Extractable Lipid

Subcritical water (SCW) has been widely studied for its unique properties both as catalyst and solvent in various chemical processes. The use of SCW to pretreat agricultural products and waste has been extensively studied for producing fermentable sugars. In this study, SCW pretreatment was carried out to increase and/or improve the extractability of oils from oil seeds like Datura stramonium, Jatropha curcas, and sunflower seeds. SCW pretreatment of D. stramonium seeds resulted in 50 % increase of oil yield (from 17.16 to 28.25 %). Although negligible increases were observed from both J. curcas and sunflower seeds, SCW pretreatment allowed full extraction of the oils without grinding and/or dehulling of the seeds. This pretreatment process caused insignificant changes in the composition and quality of the oils extracted. Efficient SCW treatment can be accomplished under mild conditions (175 °C, 3.5 MPa) in a short time (15 min).