Purification of biodiesel from palm oil by adsorption with clays

Abstract

The objective of this research is to purify biodiesel using activated charcoal, bentonite, diatomite and activated clay as adsorbents. Biodiesel obtained from transesterification via alkali-catalyzed process was purified by using four adsorbents compared with water washing process. In the presence of methanol, glycerin in biodiesel could be effectively eliminated by using 4%wt of adsorbents at 50C for 10 min. In addition, the removal of glycerin was improved up to 90% by using 1%wt of adsorbents for 1 min on the condition that methanol had been removed before treatement. The result showed that activated clay was found to be the most effective adsorbent against the other adsorbents. Adsorption processes of activated clay were described by monolayer and multilayer. The quality of purified biodiesel could meet the major specification of biodiesel standards. Therefore, the adsorption process using adsorbent could be used to purify biodiesel in place of water washing process with the advantage that no wastewater generated.