Separation of Carotenes and Vitamin E from Palm Oil Mill Effluent Using Silica from Agricultural Waste as an Adsorbent

• Main Authors: Kanokphorn SANGKHARAK, Nisa PICHID, Tewan YUNU, Puvanart KINGMAN
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Walailak University 2016-01-01
• Series: Walailak Journal of Science and Technology
• Subjects: Adsorption chromatography; carotenes; palm oil mill effluent; rice hull silica; rice straw silica
• Online Access: http://wjst.wu.ac.th/index.php/wjst/article/view/1815

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) was characterized. The effluent had low nitrogen with high Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD). 6,500 mg/L of oil (78 % of oil recovery) was recovered from 1 L of POME using n-hexane. 70 and 71 % of BOD and COD in POME were significantly reduced after oil recovery. The carotenes and vitamin E concentration from recovered oil were 580 and 160 ppm, respectively. α-carotene and β-carotene were presented as a major component in oil. Afterward, carotenes and vitamin E in oil were concentrated by adsorption chromatography using either rice hull silica or rice straw silica as adsorbents. After oil recovery, 4.60 g/L oil was obtained with high concentrations of carotenes (5,590 ppm) and vitamin E (630 ppm). Rice hull silica (RSH) had a higher capability to recover carotenes and vitamin E than rice straw silica (RSS) did. The recovery of carotenes and vitamin E using RSH were 70.77 and 11.88 % recovery, respectively. The carotene and vitamin E recovery method using RHS developed in this work has potential applications in the palm oil industry.