Decolorization of crude terpineol by adsorption

Industrial terpineol is commonly manufactured from more readily available turpentine or α-pinene rather than extracting from natural plants or woods. The product of the synthesis results in a dark-color liquid that could reduce the price and limit the use of the product itself. Finding a suitable solid adsorbent that is able to adsorb the impurities could be a better way to solve the problem rather than using energy-demanding process, such as stage-wise distillation. In this study, four different solid adsorbents were tried to decolorize the dark color of synthesized terpineol from α-pinen. Bentonite shows a very promising result as it could alter the color of the liquid into light yellow. Compared to other adsorbents, bentonite performed better at the same particle size and solid loading. The decolorization performance was also influenced significantly by the size of the solid adsorbent.