Sustainable Deacidification of Crude Soybean Oil by Thermally Activated Arrinrasho Nanoclay

Abstract

The time-contact process technique was employed in soybean crude oil purification. The efficiency of the thermally activated Arrinrasho Nanoclays as an alternate bleaching earth in the Deacidification of free fatty acids and the extraction of trace metals within the brackets 30 minutes and 1-5 % loading of adsorbent. Standard investigations of the free fatty acids after the treatment with the test material were in the range of (0.13 – 0.10) % FFA, the costly conventional adsorbent gave an average of 0.15 % FFA at 1% loading. The atomic absorption spectrometric analyses for Arsenic, Copper, Lead, and Iron in both materials were not detectable at the part per million levels. It is possible to extract (18 - 20) % oil from soybean, this oil contains (38 - 40) % proteins, with insignificant amount of cholesterol and its digestibility. These attributes of the soybean oil has rendered it essential for several health reasons. This oil has been considered as source of biodiesel for generating power in energy circles due to its availability.