Simulação e avaliação das condições de equilíbrio líquido-líquido no processo de purificação do feromônio rincoforol

Abstract

The spread of pests in coconut and oil palm trees, species of national economic importance, is a current reality. These palm trees are under constant threat from the red ring disease, whose vector is the individual of the species Rhynchophorus palmarum. In addition to the use of pesticides, the control of this pest is also being developed through synthetic semiochemicals, such as the use of the aggregation pheromone Rhynchoporol, which has proven to be more efficient in pest control by not posing environmental risks to human health and the conservation of the target species. One of the production routes for the pheromone is through the Grignard reaction, which has been adapted by the company Interacta Química, a pioneer in pheromone production in Brazil. Currently, its synthesis is carried out on a laboratory scale, but there is a need to expand production due to increasing national and international demands. Consequently, a more in-depth study of the unit operations involved is necessary. Following its production, the pheromone must undergo purification to eliminate contaminants present in the organic phase, a process that involves significant quantities of water, solvent, and solutions. In this context, the present study aimed to simulate two stages of the Rhynchoporol pheromone purification process: liquid-liquid extraction using ethyl acetate and purification with distilled water. This allowed for the determination of the optimal operational conditions that would yield a higher recovery of Rhynchoporol, using the pheromone partition coefficient as the response variable. To achieve this, the Aspen Plus software version 11 was employed, utilizing the UNIFAC thermodynamic model to simulate ideal conditions for the first and second stages of Rhynchoporol purification at different flow rates and temperatures. For the second purification stage, a complete 2³ factorial design was initially conducted to establish the relationship between the optimal water flow rate. As a result, the first study revealed that lower acetate flow rates (0.20 kg/h) at 10°C yield a greater quantity of the pheromone. In the second study, conducted at 30°C, a 2³ factorial design showed a relationship between the organic phase flow rate and temperature, indicating that with lower water flows (0.20 kg/h), a reduction of 1800 ml of water per process can be achieved, making it an environmentally favorable process.