Adsorption of saturated fatty acid in urea complexation: Kinetics and equilibrium studies

Abstract

Urea complexation is fractionation process for concentrating poly-unsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) from vegetable oil or animal fats. For process design and optimization in commercial industries, it is necessary to provide kinetics and equilibrium data. Urea inclusion compounds (UICs) as the product is a unique complex form which one molecule (guest) is enclosed within another molecule (host). In urea complexation, the guest-host bonding exists between saturated fatty acids (SFAs) and crystalline urea. This research studied the complexation is analogous to an adsorption process. The Batch adsorption process was developed to obtain the experimental data. The ethanolic urea solution was mixed with SFA in certain compositions and adsorption times. The mixture was heated until it formed homogenous and clear solution, then it cooled very slowly until the first numerous crystal appeared. Adsorption times for the kinetic data were determined since the crystal formed. The temperature was maintained constant at room temperature. Experimental sets of data were observed with adsorption kinetics and equilibrium models. High concentration of saturated fatty acid (SFA) was used to represent adsorption kinetics and equilibrium parameters. Kinetic data were examined with pseudo first-order, pseudo second-order and intra particle diffusion models. Linier, Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm were used to study the equilibrium model of this adsorption. The experimental data showed that SFA adsorption in urea crystal followed pseudo second-order model. The compatibility of the data with Langmuir isotherm showed that urea complexation was a monolayer adsorption.