Spathodea campanulata Beauv. flower dye extraction: Mass transfer enhancement through process optimization

Abstract

The natural dyes are re-gaining importance because of ecological issues of most of the synthetic dyes. Mass transfer enhancement has been carried out in the study using the optimized extraction conditions to obtain maximum dye yield from flower petals of ‘African Tulip tree’. Taguchi design has been implemented to investigate the optimum extraction conditions. The overall effort is to meet the challenges to reintroduce natural dyes. The investigated optimum parameters for extraction include: ‘150 micron particle size’, ‘1:20 solid-solvent ratio’, ‘one hour extraction’ and ‘enzyme addition as an assistance for extraction’. The absorbance values, mass transfer rates and subsequent dye yields obtained from optimized extraction have been compared against control extraction. It is seen that using optimized extraction conditions; the mass transfer rate is enhanced triply as compared to control extraction. It ultimately result in increased dye yield to the tune of about 10.75%.