Bentonite as a refining agent in waste cooking oils recycling: Flash point, density and color evaluation

Clarification of waste recycled cooking oil (WCO) is very important in order to refine the intermediate regenerated base resulting from the previous steps. Bentonite has been historically employed as a filling material for oil refining filters due to its easy availability and its cheap price. In the present communication our early results from the filtration of degummed WCO through a pad of bentonite are presented. In particular, the variation of density, flash point and color have been monitored prior and after the filtration process and compared with samples of non-filtered WCO. An early classification of the bentonite employed has been conducted on the basis of FT-IR and XRD measurements.