Use of rice husk in waste cooking oil pretreatment.

Since industrial wastes are increasing, the development of studies to find ways for their use is urgent. Waste cooking oil is an important source for the production of biodiesel, one of the main biofuels in Brazil. However, during cooking, the oil undergoes conditions that change its properties and decrease its quality, such as its acidity value. Current research treats waste cooking oil by the adsorption process using rice husk, an agro-industrial waste, and activated carbon to compare results. The potential of the adsorbents to remove free fatty acids in waste cooking oil has been investigated by the batch technique, evaluating different operating conditions of temperature, adsorbent mass and agitation. Adsorbents were characterized by nitrogen physisorption, scanning electron microscope, energy-dispersive spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. The maximum result obtained for activated carbon at acidity reduction was 63%, using 22.4°C, 169.64 rpm and 3.39 g of adsorbent mass. Already, using the rice husk the percentage of removal was the same, 63% using 22.4°C, 80.36 rpm and 1.61 g of adsorbent, however in shorter times. The results prove that the application of the rice husk for this purpose is advantageous, for being a low-cost material, available on a large scale and that provide results similar to activated carbon.

Evaluation of different adsorbents for acidity reduction in residual oils.

This work aims to evaluate the adsorption potential of bentonite and sugarcane bagasse clay for the reduction of free fatty acids in cooking oil through batch technique, experimental planning with different operating conditions (temperature, adsorbent mass and agitation). After were carried out kinetic studies and thermodynamic studies. Thus, both adsorbents were characterized by nitrogen dispersion, scanning electron microscopy with coupled energy dispersion spectroscopy. The sugarcane bagasse provided higher reductions compared to the bentonite clay, 58 and 50%, respectively. In the kinetic studies, it was observed that the pseudo-secunda model for both materials. Among the isotherms studied, the Langmuir model was better adjusted for sugarcane bagasse and Freundlich for bentonite clay. Thermodynamic parameters indicated spontaneous and endothermic adsorption at temperatures of 18°C, 20°C and 25°C. Both materials showed an advantageous result with the reduction to the adsorption of free fatty acids in the residual oil, considering that they are low-cost materials, their pre-treatment is simple from the operational point of view and their physical and chemical characteristics are favorable to the adsorption process, sugarcane bagasse contains about 42% hemicellulose, which is a hydroxyl-rich material that attracts the H+ ions from the medium.