Vegetable oils are mostly discarded as a result of colour change and attendant health problem associated with continued usage. This study is aimed at using snail shell as adsorbent to purify used vegetable oil. Snail shell is made of mostly calcium carbonate (CaCO<sub>3</sub>), this was pulverized and screened to produce fine particles. The used vegetable oil was heated at high temperature; powdered snail shell was added to the used vegetable oil and heated at a temperature of 60<sup>o</sup>C. The mixture was left for 24 hours and filtered using a suction apparatus at 15mmHg. 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, colour and specific gravity. The result showed that the physicochemical properties of the purified oil were in close agreement to the physicochemical properties of the fresh oil and a significant difference was observed between purified and used oil. This investigation has proved that snail shell which is normally discarded into the environment could be used as an effective adsorbent for the purification of used vegetable oil which could also constitute menace into the environment when discarded.

Purification of used vegetable oil using snail shell as adsorbent

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