Oil spill cleanup by structured natural sorbents made from cattail fibers

Abstract

Structured natural fiber assemblies made by cattail fibers were prepared by novel air-laying-bonding with introduction of 10–20% polypropylene/polyethylene sheath-core composite fibers (ES). The oil sorption characteristics of assemblies were examined by pure oil and oil-over-water tests and compared with as-prepared kapok and cotton fiber assemblies. It was found that although cattail/ES fiber assemblies were relatively less preferred in oil sorption capacity (11–14g/g), they showed about 90% of oil retention capacity even after 24h dripping and remained above 80% of initial sorption capacity after 10 sorption/desorption cycles. For fiber assemblies with different ES blending ratios, a blending of 10% ES was preferable to obtain a reasonable bonding structure and meanwhile guarantee the assembly’s best oil sorption performance. In oil selective test, cattail/ES fiber assemblies exhibited distinctly high oil-to-water selectivities, which were found to associate with cattail fiber’s chemical characteristic including high wax content (10.64%), low surface energy (45.64mN/m) and high ratio between dispersion and polar component (15.96). Compared with single fiber assemblies, blended fiber assemblies including two different natural fibers showed complementary oil sorption with more quantity introduction of kapok fibers significantly increasing oil sorption capacities, and cattail fibers significantly enhancing oil-to-water selectivities.