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 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.