The possibility for recovering methanol, acetic acid and phenol from oil palm shell-derived oil was investigated. Thermal cracking mainly produced a solid residue and was not a suitable method for recovering these three target chemicals. When zirconia supporting iron based catalyst (Zr/FeOx, Zr-FeOx or Zr-Al-FeOx) was applied, the "others"--unidentified hydrocarbons--were satisfactorily removed without formation of a solid residue while these target compounds were considerably stable over these catalysts. Zr-Al-FeOx showed the highest activity for oxidation of the oil to CO 2 . Effect of operating parameters (steam to oil ratio, temperature and time factor) on its performance was further investigated. In order to gain insight into the reaction path, the reaction using model compounds (methanol, acetic acid, acetone, ethyl acetate and phenol) was performed.

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The potential of recovering phytosterols from fatty acid methyl esters by an adsorption‐desorption process is demonstrated using a strong‐acid ion‐exchange styrene‐divinylbenzene resin (SA‐R) as an adsorbent and ethanol as a desorbent. Since the operating cost of the overall process significantly depends on the efficiency of SA‐R in the adsorption step, the behavior of SA‐R in sterol adsorption is investigated in detail using a model solution of stigmasterol in n‐heptane. The results indicate that stigmasterol was associatively and exothermically adsorbed on SA‐R. Based on the experimental results, a simple pseudo‐second‐order model and a modified Langmuir isotherm with their parameters, which well predicted kinetics and adsorption capacity of SA‐R, are proposed.

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Abstract. Molecular imprinted polymer (MIP) was prepared by bulk polymerization in acetone using acrylamide as a functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as a crosslinker, stigmasterol as a template and benzoyl peroxide as an initiator. The obtained MIPs were characterized using a scanning electron microscope and a fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer. Performance in sterol adsorption of MIPs prepared under various conditions was investigated using a model solution of phytosterols in heptane, comparing with a nonimprinted polymer (NIP). Statistical analysis revealed that the amounts of crosslinker and template strongly affected the performance of MIP while the amount of solvent slightly affected the performance of MIP. MIP synthesized under the optimal condition had adsorption capacity of 1.28 mgsterols/gads which were 1.13 times of NIP.