Nwankwere E.T, Nwadiogbu J.O, Yilleng M.T and Eze K.A.
Kinetic studies on the adsorption of β-carotene from palm oil on local bentonite clay (Ukpo Clay) have been investigated. This study demonstrates that the clay is efficient in the adsorption of β-carotene and free fatty acids from edible oils. The bleaching efficiency has been determined with the aid of a colorimeter. The rate constant obtained from the zeroth order kinetic equation was 0.002min-1. The manner of adsorption of palm oil on the clay was chemisorption and the ΔG† of the system obtained was 112.66KJmol-1 using the absolute rate equation. This study lead to the conclusion that the local clay is a very potent adsorbents for bleaching vegetable oils.
