A sustainable approach to oil spill cleanup by kapok and waste cotton needle punched nonwoven blends

Natural materials that can absorb a large amount of oil have recently received a lot of interest as sorbents to clean up oil spills in seawater. In this work, kapok fibre was blended with different proportions of cotton fibres obtained as blow room waste from the textile industry to prepare nonwovens using carding and needle-punching techniques. The potential for oil sorption, oil retention, and water sorption of kapok/waste cotton nonwovens was investigated. FTIR, SEM, and surface contact angle of the fibres were determined since oil sorption depends on the fibres' physical and chemical properties. The effect of waste cotton and kapok fibre blend ratio on oil sorption and oil retention behaviour of kapok/cotton nonwoven was studied. The maximum oil sorption capacity of blended nonwoven (90/10, kapok/cotton) with areal density (150 GSM or g/m2) was 45.36 g/g, 43.97 g/g, and 39.92 g/g for engine oil, vegetable oil, and diesel oil, respectively. Reusability test results suggest that after ten cycles, the oil absorbency of 150K/C 90/10 was 42.55 g/g, 40.61 g/g, and 36.45 g/g against engine oil, vegetable oil, and diesel oil, respectively. A comparison of the oil sorption capacity of kapok/waste cotton blends with other synthetic (Polypropylene) sorbents was also presented. According to our findings, kapok/waste cotton nonwovens could become an important sorbent for oil spill clean-up.