Isolation of guaiene from crude and distillate patchouli oil extracted by molecular distillation

Guaiene is one of the components of sesquiterpenes that affects the patchouli oil fragrance. It is commonly used in the pharmaceutical industry and is also used as a flavoring and fragrance agent in the food industry. The objective of this study was to obtain the highest content of guaiene and to investigate the effect of the isolation stage by the molecular distillation process. Crude and distillate fraction patchouli oil samples were introduced into the molecular distillation system. The process conditions applied were first-stage and second-stage molecular distillation. Parameters observed were in terms of chemical composition and color. Results obtained the highest content of a-guaiene in the patchouli oil fraction distillate provided by second-stage molecular distillation (23.53%). However, the highest content of A-guaiene was revealed in second-stage molecular distillation residues (33.15%) of patchouli oil fraction distillate samples. The chromaticity value of the second stage distillate was yellow while the residue was yellow-red, respectively.

Characterization approach to develop distillation process for production of anode-grade coal tar pitch

Many efforts have been spent to make a trade-off between designing an efficient distillation system and meeting very strict requirements of pitch product. The design of coal tar distillation for pitch production should be able not only energetically efficient but also to meet the physicochemical requirements of pitch. This paper presents a practical approach and a systematic method of material characterizations to evaluate appropriate distillation operating conditions. The purpose of this study was to develop a simple coal tar distillation process that focused on obtaining anode-grade binder having certain specifications. The distillation process was carried out in two stages. The first stage occurred up to 360-370°C at atmospheric pressure to separate all volatile fractions. The second stage distillation involves vacuum pressure with 4 conditions in which A<B<C<D ranging from -4 to -35 cmHg and varying soaking time to convert soft pitch into hard pitch. Higher vacuum pressure of distillation is not necessarily high to meet specifications. Our finding shows that B is the most favourable vacuum pressure and can be further heat treated for specific requirements of pitch.