Deoiling efficiency for oil extraction from spent bleaching clay and the quality of recovered oil

The disposal and reuse of spent bleaching clay (SBC) from the palm oil processing industry is a problem of growing importance. Although today the only practical way of removing SBC is by disposal, extraction with organic solvents is a well-known method of deoiling contaminated SBC. Various hydrocarbon solvents are used as solvents to extract the residual oil in SBC. In this study, SBC was deoiled by hexane extraction. The content of oil and minor components in SBC was more than 40% by weight. All the extracted oils, irrespective of the solvent used, had poorer quality than crude palm oil (CPO). The outcome of the study showed that the amount of extracted oil using the conventional Soxhlet extraction method was higher than by batch extraction. However, for extraction of the residual SBC using the batch method, a SBC to solvent ratio of 1:7 should be more suitable as more of the impurities are removed. The aim of this study was for a complete separation of the residual oil from SBC. The oil and SBC were analyzed and tested. The results show that SBC still had an activity approximately 80% that of fresh bleaching clay

Regeneration and characterization of spent bleaching clay

Spent bleach­ing clay (SBC), a solid waste gen­er­ated from the palm oil refin­ery, may be recy­cled rather than being sim­ply dis­posed off in land­fills. The aim of this research was to inves­ti­gate the heat regen­er­a­tion of SBC and to eval­u­ate the per­for­mance of the heat-treated SBC in bleach­ing crude oil. Two types of SBC were used, i.e. (a) acid-activated clay, and (b) nat­ural clay. Two types of regen­er­a­tion processes were per­formed, i.e. (a) sol­vent extrac­tion fol­lowed by heat treat­ment, and (b) direct heat treat­ment. Heat treat­ment was con­ducted in a box fur­nace at tem­per­a­tures rang­ing from 400°C to 800°C. Red colour indices of oils were used to deter­mine the regen­er­a­tion effi­ciency. Spent bleach­ing clay pro­duced by the direct heated-regenerated spent bleach­ing clay (HRSBC) yielded a higher regen­er­a­tion effi­ciency than the deoiled-heated-regenerated spent bleach­ing clay (DHRSBC) pro­duced by sol­vent extrac­tion and heat treat­ment. This is because mois­ture, impu­ri­ties and dirt were more com­pletely removed by direct heat­ing than by sol­vent extrac­tion. Spe­cific sur­face area, total pore vol­ume and aver­age pore size of SBC were mea­sured using the nitro­gen adsorption-desorption method. The results show that the HRSBC at 500°C pos­sessed a higher spe­cific sur­face area and total pore vol­ume and gave a bet­ter bleach­ing effi­ciency than HRSBC at 400°C and 800°C. All the regen­er­ated SBC sam­ples were meso­porous material

Regeneration and characterization of Spent Bleaching Clay

The spent bleaching clay (SBC), a solid waste generated from palm oil refinery, may be recycled rather than simply disposed off in landfill. The aim of this study is to investigate the heat regeneration of SBC and to evaluate the performance of the heat-treated SBC on the bleaching of crude oil. The quality of oil is first studied. The quality of the oil extracted from spent bleaching clay from palm oil refinery (SBC-PO) and spent bleaching clay from palm kernel oil refinery (SBC-PKO) much inferior compared to that of crude oil. De-oiling efficiency for both SBC increases as the solid to solvent ratio is decreased. Two type of SBC are studied such as acid-activated clay (XMP, WAC) and natural clay (AH). Two types of regeneration processes are performed, such as (a) solvent extraction followed by heat treatment and (b) regeneration carried out by direct heat treatment. Heat treatment is conducted in a box furnace at temperatures ranging from 400 to 1000°C. Red color indices of oils are used to determine the regeneration efficiency. Spent bleaching clay produced by direct heat treatment (HRSBC), yields a higher regeneration efficiency than the deoil-heat-regenerated spent bleaching clay (DHRSBC), produced by solvent extraction and heat treatment. The specific surface area, total pore volume and average pore size of SBC are measured using nitrogen adsorption-desorption method. The proximate analysis is also performed to clarify the mechanism of regeneration process. The data shows that the HRSBC at 500°C possess the highest specific surface area and total pore volume and give better bleaching efficiency than that of HRSBC at 400 and 800°C. All the regenerated SBC samples are mesoporous material. Adsorption isotherm is useful for determining the efficiency of the HRSBC in removing pigments. The Henry’s Law equation is found to be more applicable than the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms in the adsorption of pigments from degummed palm oil on HRSBC. The adsorptive efficiency of the HRSBC is optimum at regeneration temperature of 500°C

Enzymatic synthesis of palm oil-based trimethylolpropane ester as biolubricant base stock catalyzed by Lipozyme 435

The application of enzymes in the organic synthesis of polyol esters for biolubricants is one of the initiatives in the development of sustainable processes in the oil palm industry. In this study, trimethylolpropane (TMP) ester was synthesized from high oleic palm methyl ester (HO-PME) via enzymatic transesterification. Lipozyme 435, which is an immobilized form of lipase B from Candida antarctica (CALB), was investigated as a substitute for chemical catalyst in the production of palm oil-based lubricant. Response surface methodology (RSM) via Central Composite Rotatable Design was employed to optimize the reaction conditions. The results showed that only 3% (w/w) enzyme dosage was required to obtain the highest triester of 82% without purification. The optimum process conditions predicted by RSM were 3.45:1 M ratio of HO-PME: TMP, 15.25 mbar pressure, and 48 h reaction time. The TMP ester exhibited excellent lubricant properties. This study demonstrated a reduction in overall production cost including waste management due to the elimination of the product purification step. As compared to chemical catalyst, milder reaction conditions and no formation of side products were observed in this study. The physicochemical characteristics of the TMP ester synthesized via enzymatic transesterification complied satisfactorily with the requirements of biolubricant base stock. Our findings offer a greener and economical approach for producing high-performance biolubricant, which can be applied for scale-up production

Deoiling and regeneration efficiencies of spent bleaching clay

Problem statement: Disposal and reuse of Spent Bleaching Clay (SBC) from palm oil processing industry is a problem of growing importance. The residual oil in the SBC can be recovered using hexane as solvent. Approach: In this study, the effect of different solid to solvent ratio on the deoiling efficiency of SBC samples from palm oil refinery and palm kernel refinery were studied. The amount of extracted oil and deoiling efficiency for both types of SBC increases as the solid to solvent ratio is decreased. Results: All the extracted oils, irrespective of the amount of solvent used, have poorer quality than crude oil and may be difficult to be refined to good quality and stability. Conclusion: The deoiled SBC treated using different solid to solvent ratio gave almost similar regeneration efficiency i.e., about 80% for bleaching of CPO and not more than 30% for bleaching of CPKO