The crude oil of Malaysian castor bean Ricinus communis L. seed was extracted by Soxhlet method using hexane. The physicochemical characteristics of castor bean oil were evaluated. The results showed that Malaysian castor seeds contain a relatively high percentage of total lipids content; 43.3% (per dry weight), high iodine value (84.5 mg/g) and saponification value (182.96 mg/g). The seed oil moisture content, acid value and free fatty acid percentage (% FFA) were 0.2%, 4.88 mg/g and 3.4%, respectively. The unsaturated fatty acids (UFA) content were 97.5% of the total fatty acids composition. Ricinoleic acid comprises over 84% while other fatty acids present were linoleic (7.3%), oleic (5.5%), palmitic (1.3%), stearic (1.2%) and linolenic (0.5%), respectively. Five types of castor bean seed oil triacylglycerols were identified as triricinolein, RRR (84.1%), diricinoleoylstearoylglycerol, RRS (8.2%), diricinoleoyloleoyl-glycerol, RRO (5.6%), diricinoleoyllinoleoylglycerol, RRL (1.2%) and diricinoleoylpalmitoyl-glycerol, RRP (0.9%) respectively.
This work was aimed to evaluate the feasibility of castor bean residue based activated carbons prepared through metals chloride activation. The activated carbons were characterized for textural properties and surface chemistry, and the adsorption data of rhodamine B were established to investigate the removal performance. Zinc chloride-activated carbon with specific surface area of 395 m(2)/g displayed a higher adsorption capacity of 175 mg/g. Magnesium chloride and iron(III) chloride are less toxic and promising agents for composite chemical activation. The adsorption data obeyed Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetics model. The rate-limiting step in the adsorption of rhodamine B is film diffusion. The positive values of enthalpy and entropy indicate that the adsorption is endothermic and spontaneous at high temperature.