Investigation of modified kapok fibre on the sorption of oil in water

In despite of rapid oil and gas industry development, a major problem has been faced by the world is oil spill. During transportation of crude oil, accidents or unwanted events may happen thus causing catastrophic incident of oil spilling over ocean causing huge amount of loss and damage to environment. Currents methods of responding to oil spills are mostly to preventing the oil from damaging the ecosystem and making sure the oil is disintegrated or removed quickly as possible from the exposed environment of ocean. However, this existing practical methods does not recover the oil from ocean but merely preventing further damage to ocean and its ecosystem. In this study, Kapok fibre or scientific name Ceiba Pentandra – an agricultural product which has excellent water repellency will be investigated on its oil absorbency. This fibre naturally has hydrophobic and oleophilic character which allows it to selectively absorb oil from water without absorbing any water. This study will be focused on studying the modified Kapok fibre and their performance on oil absorbency. Modification is an act of changing the Kapok’s fibre structure using chemical. Chemical that was being used in this study are Sodium Hydroxide and Sodium Chlorite. Investigation was conducted over the Kapok fibre to find out how does the modification affects the sorption of oil in water. Tests such as Absorbency test, Reusability test and Optimum Time test were conducted in order to prove that modification has effects on the Kapok fibre oil sorption. From the findings, Kapok fibre has shown promising future in being sorbent material for boomers to be used in oil spilled clean up.