Oil spill clean-up using combined sorbents: a comparative investigation and design aspects

Oil disposal in the marine environment leads to severe harm to marine life. Oil spills clean-up by adsorption is an attractive method due to its simplicity and low cost. Extra credit is added when the adsorption material utilized is an agricultural or an industrial- agricultural waste. In terms of price, environmentally sustainable products and abundance, rice straw is an appealing adsorbent for this purpose. In this research, a new sorbent fabricated by adding rice straw to synthetic hydrophobic sorbent material, namely; RP 18 was studied. The results of the present study indicate that rice straw could, successfully, be used to remove crude oil from oily water. The removal efficiency of rice straw reached 94.7% for effluents with low oil concentrations and the adsorption capacity was 6.67 g oil/g rice straw. A synthetic hydrophobic material (RP 18, produced by OPEC) is also tested for its ability to absorb oil preferentially. Its absorbance capacity was 12 g oil/g sorbent. The experimental results obtained are used to develop a new design for an oil filter for marine pollution fighting. A technique for recycling of the synthetic material and recovery of the oil is illustrated.