OIL SPILL CLEANUP USING NATURAL RECYCLABLE ABSORBENTS

The aim of this study is to develop environmental fiiendly absorbents from naturalbased products to absorb the oil spill at water surface. Sugarcane (saccarhum officinarum) bagasse, kapok (Ceiba Pentandra) and rice husk (Oryzae Sativa) are selected as they are easily obtained, free, efficient and...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ali, Norizan
Format: Final Year Project
Language:English
Published: Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS 2010
Subjects:
Online Access:http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/10080/1/2010%20-%20Oil%20Spill%20Cleanup%20using%20Natural%20Recyclable%20Absorbents.pdf
http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/10080/
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Summary:The aim of this study is to develop environmental fiiendly absorbents from naturalbased products to absorb the oil spill at water surface. Sugarcane (saccarhum officinarum) bagasse, kapok (Ceiba Pentandra) and rice husk (Oryzae Sativa) are selected as they are easily obtained, free, efficient and biodegradable. The water absorbency, oil absorbency and optimum time are studied for these selected naturalbased products as well as the commercial synthetic absorbent which made from Polypropylene (PP). This study proved that the ability of these natural-based products (sugarcane bagasse, kapok and rice husk) as oil absorbents are better than Polypropylene. Experimental works are conducted to achieve all the objectives. The experimental works are including water absorbency test, oil absorbency test and optimum time test. The oils used in this study are diesel, crude oil, engine oil and used engine oil. The results show that PP absorbs water more than the natural-based products which mean that PP is hydrophilic. Kapok has lowest water absorbency followed by SCB and rice husk but rice husk is considered failed since more than 50% were sunk in the water. In addition, from the experiments, SCB and kapok are able to absorb oil impressively compared to PP for all types of oil. Thus, it is proved that natural-based products are better than PP in the sense of hydrophobicity, oleophilicity and biodegradability.