Abstract
Non-woven polypropylene (PP) sorbents are materials that can be used in oil recovery following spills, which are interesting alternatives to remediate contaminated areas. This work aimed to characterize a non-woven sorbent made of PP. The physicochemical characteristics of the material, sorption capacity, kinetics, and adsorption isotherms were evaluated. The physicochemical study included the determination of thickness, density, thermal and chemical properties of the sorbent, and fiber morphology. Sorption tests were performed according to the standard method ASTM 726-12. The kinetic models of pseudo-first and pseudo-second order were tested. The fit of the experimental data to the adsorption isotherms of Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin was also carried out. The sorbates used in the tests were diesel, petroleum, and lubricant oil. The sorption capacity of the PP nonwoven blanket relative to diesel, petroleum, and lubricant oil in long-term tests was 5.3, 12.3, and 18.7 g∙g-¹, with increasing values when sorbates were more viscous. The results of the short and long-term tests did not show a statistical difference in the sorption capacity of the blanket. The kinetic study showed that the sorption of the three sorbates followed pseudo-second-order kinetics. The diesel oil presented a better fit to the Langmuir isotherm (R² = 0.998), whereas the petroleum presented an excellent fit to all three isotherms (R² = 0.996-0.999). Regarding sorbent reusability, the sorption capacity stabilized after the second cycle, and the samples whose sorbate removal was carried out by centrifugation have presented and maintained the highest sorption capacities.
Highlights
Oil spills are some of the most devastating environmental disasters, causing several lasting negative effects in both the fauna and flora, soil, water tables, and in the human populations near the spill
It was possible to observe that the PP blanket was not uniform regarding its thickness and density depending on the sample collected
The results reported by these authors were similar to the ones obtained in the present work relative to the diesel oil, whose sorption capacity varied from 3.0 and 8.2 g∙g-1, depending only on the specific mass of the sorbent (0.10-0.22 g∙cm-3)
Summary
Oil spills are some of the most devastating environmental disasters, causing several lasting negative effects in both the fauna and flora, soil, water tables, and in the human populations near the spill. The enforcement of new environmental laws and procedures reduced the number of large-scale spills, these accidents still represent an important environmental problem (Rosa, Fraceto & Moshini-Carlos, 2012; Wahi, Chua, Choong, Ngaini, & Nourouzi, 2013). Oils from both natural and synthetic origins are considered persistent pollutants. To counter the adverse effects of the spill and recover the oil, fibrous polymeric sorbents are usually employed, such as non-woven polypropylene (PP) blankets (Callister & Rethwisch, 2010; Shackelford, 2000). PP is a sorbent with nonpolar characteristics, which renders it a good sorbent of non-polar substances, such as petroleum derivates (Shaw, 1975)
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