Research citronella essential oil distillation equipment by steam explosion method
Abstract
Nowadays, distillation of citronella essential oil in Viet Nam is only conducted at smale scale and uses backward technology. In this research, our group has designed and manufactured essential oil collecting equipment by distillation together with pretreatment by steam explosion. After many experiments, the final result show that with each 3 kilogram raw citronella, approximately 15.5 ml essential oil is collected and this process also saves over 60% of the total time compared with that of other popular methods. These initial results prove that the equipment is efficient in saving time and energy. With more time and resource, it is possible to apply the device at industrial scale.
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