Vegetable oils undergo a series of changes and reactions during frying and heating which result in color changes (which depends on the food substance fried) and has negative effects on the human health. This health effects are sometimes mutagenic or carcinogenic. The main goal of this study is to use groundnut shell as an adsorbent to regenerate the quality of used vegetable oil. The groundnut shell were crushed into powder, screened to produce fine particle. Used vegetable oil of 50 ml was heated at high temperature, powdered groundnut shell at different grams (2 g, 4 g, 6 g, 8 g, 10 g) were added to the used vegetable oil and heated at a temperature of 60 <sup>o</sup>C. The solution was left for 24 hours and filtered using a suction apparatus at 15 mmHg. Physicochemical analyses were carried out on the fresh oil, used vegetable oil and adsorbent treated oils. The following parameters were determined: saponification value, acid value, free fatty acid, iodine value, peroxide value, refractive index, color changes and specific gravity. Some essential minerals were also determined using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) method. The study showed that the physicochemical properties of the purified oil was in close agreement to the physicochemical properties of the fresh oil and a significant difference was observed between purified and used oil. This study proved that groundnut shell could be used as an effective adsorbent for the purification of used vegetable oil.<br/>

Purification of used vegetable oil using groundnut shell

255th National Meeting (2018)

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