Abstract
We have evaluated the efficiency of sugar cane bagasse ash (SCBA), date palm seed carbon (DPSC), and rice husk ash (RHA) as natural adsorbents and compared them with the synthetic adsorbent Magnesol XL for improving the quality of waste frying oil (WFO) and for the impact on the physicochemical properties of the obtained biodiesel. We measured moisture content, refractive index (RI), density, acid value (AV), iodine value (IV), peroxide value (PV), and saponification value (SV), as well as fatty acid profile. Purification treatments with various levels of adsorbents caused significant (P ≤ 0.05) decreases in free fatty acids (FFAs), PVs, and IVs. The highest yields (86.45 and 87.80%) were observed for biodiesel samples produced from WFO treated with 2% Magnesol and 3% of RHA, respectively, followed by samples treated with 2 and 3% of DPSC or RHA. Pre-treatments caused a significant decrease in the content of C 18:2 linoleic acids, consistent with a significant increase in the content of monounsaturated and saturated fatty acids (MUFA) in the treated samples. The highest oxidation value (COX) (1.30) was observed for biodiesel samples produced from WFO without purification treatments. However, the lowest values (0.44-0.73) were observed for biodiesel samples produced from WFO treated with different levels of adsorbents. Our results indicate that pre-treatments with different levels of adsorbents regenerated the quality of WFO and improved the quality of the obtained biodiesel.