The free fatty acids (FFAs) content in CPO indicates the deterioration level of oil affects the crude palm oil price in the market. The crude palm oil mill industries play a vital role in producing high purity and stability palm oil products before transferring them to the palm oil refinery plant. Therefore, to comply with regulation standards, it is essential to keep the FFAs below the specification level, 5%. The FFAs can alter the taste and give a dreadful flavour and noxious oxygenated compounds. Many researchers have been working on finding a solution for FFAs deacidification in CPO such as by using distillation, membrane, solvent extraction, enzymatic, and adsorption. In this study, potassium oxide supported on dolomite adsorbent was used as an adsorbent for free fatty acids (FFAs) treatment in crude palm oil (CPO). The characteristics of the adsorbent were determined by TGA, XRD, SEM, BET and TPD-CO2. Taguchi method was utilized for experimental design and optimum condition determination. There were four parameters and three levels involved in this study: time (30, 60, 90 min), stirring rate (300, 500, 700 rpm), adsorbent dosage (1, 3, 5 wt%) and K2O concentration (5, 10, 15 wt%). The adsorbent had a larger pore size, higher basic strength, and more basic sites in greater efficiency (63%) in FFAs removal from CPO. The optimum conditions were at 30 min time, 700 rpm stirring rate, 5 wt% adsorbent dosage and 15 wt% K2O concentration. Taguchi method simplified determination of experimental parameters and minimized the operating costs.

The morphology of (a) 5 wt% K2O/dolomite (b) 10 wt% K2O/dolomite (c) 15 wt% K2O/dolomite adsorbents

Percentage contribution of time, stirring rate , K2O concentration and adsorbent dosage on FFA reduction in CPO  (with signal to noise ratio)

I.Nor Shafizah., R.Irmawati., Hishamuddin Omar., M.Yahaya., A.Alia Aina (2022). Removal of free fatty acid (FFA) in crude palm oil (CPO) using potassium oxide/dolomite as an adsorbent: Optimization by Taguchi method. Food Chemistry 373: 131668

Artikel penuh: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.131668

Tarikh Input: 09/01/2023 | Kemaskini: 10/08/2023 | ainzubaidah