Adsorption isotherm studies of palm,carotene extraction by synthetic polymer adsorbent

The use of different synthetic polymer resin adsorbents, including HP 20, E ra 31, Era 32 and Era 50 for the removal of carotenes from crude palm oil w as investigated The adsorption of carotene was determined using several ads orption isotherm models such as Langmuir and Scatchard plots. The Langmuir adsorption model was found to be sufficient to describe the adsorption of c arotenes by using these four types of resins, suggesting that the process w as favorable, saturable and an equilibrated mechanism. A curve of Scatchard transformation plot showed that the adsorption involves multiple binding s ites. The maximum uptake capacity of all resins used in isopropanol (IPA) w as about 5 fold higher than the maximum uptake capacity obtained in n-hexan e. The adsorbent found to be most efficient for carotene was HP 20 for expe riment carried out in IPA. The carotenes concentration obtained by HP 20 in IPA was 31.44 mg/L compared to 7.12 mg/L obtained in n-hexane.