Sulfonated tea waste: A low-cost adsorbent for purification of biodiesel

ABSTRACT

In the present work, the crude biodiesel produced from spent fish frying oil through alkaline catalyzed transesterification was purified using a low-cost adsorbent viz. sulfonated tea waste. After separating the glycerol, the crude biodiesel was purified using the suggested adsorbent. Various methods of purification using the said adsorbent were applied such as purification using adsorption column chromatography and shaking methods. The results showed that purification using adsorption column chromatography exhibited the bst result. Properties of the purified fuels were determined and found conformed to those specified by the ASTM standards. For the sake of comparison, purification using zeolite and water washing method was also investigated. The result indicated that the suggested adsorbent was more successful on purification of the crude biodiesel compared to other methods.

KEYWORDS:

• Tea waste
• sulfonated tea waste
• purification of biodiesel
• fuel properties
• analysis of biodiesel