Determination of CO2 solubility in Perna perna mussel and analysis of the suitability of the ideal and non-ideal gas models

In SGS (Soluble Gas Stabilization) processes, the carbon dioxide (CO2 ) is dissolved into the food product under controlled temperature, pressure, and gas/product ratio. The prediction of CO2 solubility can be achieved using a computational code using equations of state from experimental data on CO2 concentration in food. In this work, the solubility of CO2 in Perna perna mussels was obtained using Ideal Gas law and Virial, Van der Waals, Soave-Redlich-Kwong, and Peng-Robinson equations. The SGS process was performed at varying system pressure (200–600 kPa), temperature (0–6 °C), and gas/product (g/p) (mussels) ratio (1:1–5:1) in the cooked and shucked mussels for 65 h. A total of 11 experiments, arranged in a 23 experimental design, with triplicate runs at the central point, were performed. The compressibility factor indicated that the Ideal Gas state is a good approximation only for experiments 1, 2, 5, and 6. It was observed that the pressure and the gas/product ratio exert a more significant influence on the CO2 solubilization process in the mussel. Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to perform thermodynamic calculations showed to be a great resource regarding complex calculations.