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Bentonite was used as a photocatalyst in the degradation of mycotoxins in sunflower oil, under UV-illumination. The objective of this study was to investigate and evaluate the efficiency of bentonite adding to sunflower oil to decompose the solubilised B1, B2, G2 aflatoxins and T-2 toxin by UV light irradiating, as solution to increase vegetable oil quality. Identification of decontaminating process particularities consists in the formulation of mathematical model which describes the influence of process parameters on the decomposition of mycotoxins. In the present work, decontamination process was studied at laboratory scale using a plug-flow photoreactor, serial connected with a buffer vessel, at constant operating temperature and irradiating time. The kinetics of photocatalytic process was assumed to follow a pseudo-first-order rate law. The apparent photodegradation rate constant depend strongly on the present mycotoxin, the bentonite catalyst contribute to obtain much lower mycotoxin concentrations. The model predicted maximum values of apparent photodegradation constants were compared with the experimental data, the model was verified.

Keywords: Mycotoxins, Aflatoxin B1, Aflatoxin B2, Aflatoxin G2, T-2 toxin, photochemical degradation, ultraviolet light, sunflower oil, kinetics, reaction mechanism, HPLC.