Using engineered clay to bleach palm oil is a novel way of activating the properties of the oil

1. BLEACHING OF PALM OIL
USING CLAY SAMPLES

2. CONTENT
 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
 LITERATURE REVIEW
• PALM OIL
• BLEACHING
• BLEACHING CLAYS
 MATERIALS AND METHODS

3. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
 Oil palm (Elaeis Guineensis) is the principal source of
palm oil.The individual fruits, are made up of an outer
skin (the exocarp), a pulp (mesocarp) containing the
palm oil in a fibrous matrix; a central nut consisting of
a shell (endocarp). The oil palm fruit produces two
oils; crude palm oil obtained from squeezing the fleshy
fruit and palm kernel oil from the seed.
 Palm oil in its raw form contains impurities, for palm
oil to be edible; these impurities which negatively
influence the appearance, taste, flavor and the
durability have to be removed. These impurities can be
reduced by a process called bleaching which is an
adsorption process.

4. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
 Bleaching is an adsorption process which involves the use of
adsorbents to remove unacceptable oil components. Several
adsorbents such as natural and activated clay, activated snail shell and
activated carbon have been used.
 Some clay minerals have limited adsorptive properties in the natural
state and require chemical treatment by acids to create the surface area
and porosity needed for bleaching vegetable oils. Therefore the need
arises to investigate how different acids can affect the clay’s
adsorptive property and its ability to act as a bleaching agent.

5. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
 The aim of this study is to evaluate the potency of clay from
Itu to bleach palm oil, to evaluate the effects of different
acids on the clay and how it affects its adsorption rate.
 The following objectives shall be pursued in the course of
the study;
• To activate the clay using hydrochloric acid, sulphuric acid
and citric acid.
• To investigate the kinetics of the bleaching process.
• To determine the percentage colour reduction.

6. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
 During the refining of palm oil, bleaching is an important step
which is used to remove pigments, and other unwanted constituents.
It is a vital stage because it reduces impurities that may affect the
appearance, taste and marketability of the oil. This study will draw
attention to other acids that can be used to activate the adsorbent
(clay) to improve its adsorptive properties.

7. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
• The scope of this project will be a laboratory-scale
study of bleaching of palm oil, the method of activation
will be acid-activation using the following acids;
sulphuric acid, citric acid and hydrochloric acid. The
clay sample will be gotten from Itu local government
area in Akwa Ibom State. The kinetics of the reaction
and the colour reduction after bleaching will be studied.

8. LITERATURE REVIEW:PALM OIL
• Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp
(reddish pulp) of the fruit of oil palm, primarily the African oil
palm Elaeis guineensis (Reeves et al, 1979). The mesocarp
comprises about 70-80% by weight of the fruit and about 45-50%
of this mesocarp is oil. The rest of the fruit comprises the shell,
kernel, moisture and other non-fatty fibre (Jit Kang, 2003).

9. BLEACHING
• Bleaching of oil is a process which removes contaminants that adversely
impact the appearance and performance of these triglyceride based materials
(Berbesi et al., 2011). In bleaching various different types of bleaching clays
or earths are used such as acid activated bleaching earth, fuller’s earth,
activated charcoal etc. Between these stages, bleaching is the most critical
phase since it helps to improve the appearance, taste, flavor and permanence
of the final oil products (Rossi et al., 2003). During the bleaching process,
the oil is brought into contact with surface active substances that adsorb
undesired particles. The adsorbent and the adsorbed are filtered off, and the
oil leaves the plant with the desired colour.

10. BLEACHING PROCESS

11. BLEACHING CLAYS
 Nutting(1933) states that bleaching clays are of both the
naturally active and the activated types . Partial leaching with
dilute acids renders these clays highly active bleaching agents.
The adsorptive capacity of adsorbent minerals depends on
their mineralogical structure and adsorptive properties, such as
surface area, particle size distribution, porosity, and surface
acidity.

12. MATERIALS AND METHODS
 Materials
The clay sample will be obtained locally from ItuLocal Government Area of
Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria as dry lumped sample. The crude palm oil (C.P.O)
that will be used for this study will be obtained from Use Offot market in
Akwa Ibom State. Sulphuric acid, Hydrochloric acid and Citric acid will be of
analytical grade.
 Clay and palm oil characterization
The clay sample will be characterized using Atomic Absorption
spectrophotometer and X-ray Fluorescence. The properties of the unbleached
palm oil will be determined according to the AFNOR method (1981).

13. MATERIALS AND METHODS
 Acid Activation of clay
Acid activation will be done according to the method described by James et al
(2008) and Vicente Rodriquez et al (1996).
 Assessment of Bleaching Performance
The percentage colour reduction of the oil after bleaching will be determined
using a colorimeter.
Bleaching capacity or % colour reduction = 100× A0 – A
A0
Where A0=absorbance of crude oil
A=absorbance of bleached oil