Performance Analysis of Inactivated and Acid Activated Marine and Terrestrial Shells Based Adsorbent as an Alternative Bleaching Material for Palm Oil

Abstract

The use of environmentally benign materials as adsorbent for bleaching palm oil has been revitalize due to loss of significant amount of oil associated with commercial bleaching earth. This paper examined the performance of inactivated shell samples from snail, mussel, periwinkle and the corresponding acid activated samples as an alternative bleaching material for palm oil. Effectiveness of the bleaching process was examined by determining critical process parameters such as degree of bleaching (%), adsorbent dosage (%), and oil retention capacity of the adsorbent. Maximum bleaching performance of 98.70%–96.60% for inactivated samples and 97.79%–95.52% for 0.5 M hydrochloric acid activated samples were obtained at low adsorbent dosage of 9.09 wt.%. The weight percentage of residual oil (1.38–20.08 wt.%) in the spent adsorbent was extremely low for all the samples. Inactivated samples could be a better alternative for commercial adsorbent.