BIOMASS CONVERSION AND BIOREFINERY, cilt.14, sa.7, ss.8917-8930, 2024 (SCI-Expanded)
In today's world, where energy is gaining importance day by day, waste transformer oils, which have similar properties to diesel fuel, have an important potential in the search for alternative fuels. However, in order for waste transformer oils to be used as fuel, the water in it must be removed. In this study, the water in the waste transformer oil was removed by using factory tea waste, which is a natural adsorbent and has a significant waste potential. The characterization of the adsorbent was made by BET, SEM, and FTIR. The effects of various parameters on the water removal were analyzed by adsorption experiments, and the optimum conditions were determined as adsorbent amount: 17.5% (w/v); temperature, 20 degrees C; contact time, 45 min; initial water concentration, 55 ppm; and pH, 3.57. The water removal percentage was 98.6% under optimum conditions. In addition, the adsorption isotherm and kinetics were also examined, and it was found that the Freundlich isotherm model and the pseudo-first-order kinetic model were the most suitable models for this process. The results of the study showed that the factory tea waste is a suitable adsorbent for the removal of water in waste transformer oil and the reusability of the adsorbent decreased after the 2nd cycle.