Optimization of Phosphorus Content Removal in Sludge Palm Oil Using Response Surface Methodology

EasyChair Preprint 6780

Abstract

Sludge Palm Oil is a waste oil produced by palm oil mill activities, but it has an appreciable amount of 0.6% to 0.7% of oil. This means a typical Palm oil mill that produces 3,857,143 tons/year of POME, may produce up to 27, 000 tons/year of SPO.  However, this oil has high free fatty acid content (up to 80%), moisture and impurities (up to 3%) and phosphorus content of more than 20 ppm. To increase the quality of SPO, a pre-treatment of the refining process is needed, it includes degumming and bleaching processes. The aim of this research is to optimize the amount of phosphoric acid and bleaching earth added to removethe phosphorus and moisture content via the degumming and bleaching processes. The Response Surface Methodology suggested 20 experiments. The amount of phosphoric acid (0.05wt.% to 2.00wt.%) and bleaching earth (0.05wt.% to 2.0 wt.%) varied. The optimal refining conditions were acid degumming at 75℃ for 50 min, water degumming with 1 litre of hot distilled water at 100℃ for 30 min and bleaching at 80℃ for 1 hour. The interactive effect of the independent variables on the removal of phosphorus content in Sludge Palm oil was investigated using a 3D surface plot. At an initial FFA value of 40%, the highest experimental removal of phosphorus content was 76%, phosphoric acid dosage of 1.027wt.% and bleaching earth dosage of 1.68wt.%. While the maximum percentage removal of moisture content was 96% phosphoric acid dosage 1.025 wt.% and bleaching earth dosage 1.25 wt.% at 55% initial FFA.

Keyphrases: Acid Degumming, Bleaching, Palm oil mill effluent, Response surface methodology, Sludge Palm Oil

@booklet{EasyChair:6780,
  author    = {Rachel Fran Mansa and Ektasia Edwardo and Audrey Osong Patrick and Sivakumar Kumaresan},
  title     = {Optimization of Phosphorus Content Removal in Sludge Palm Oil Using Response Surface Methodology},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 6780},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2021}}