Treatment of Liquid Oil Spill by Untreated and Treated Aswanly Clay from Egypt

Abstract

The aim of this work is to use cheap, available and recyclable sorbents for oil spill clean – up. α -SiO2-Quartz, Na2Si2O5(OH)4, CaCO3, MgCO3, BaCO3, CaO, MgO, and Fe2O3 are used individually or mixed with Aswanly clay to identify the sorption activity of these materials and to show the effect of incorporation of these materials into the Aswanly clay. Results were 63, 75, 100, 93, 95,75, 92, 100, 80, 98, 90, 71, 90 and 97% on using 1.0 g α -SiO2-Quartz, 0.9 g Na2Si2O5 (OH) 4, 0.07 g CaCO3, 0.05 g MgCO3, 0.08 g BaCO3, 0.05g CaO, 0.1 g MgO, and 0.08 g Fe2O3, 0.1 g clay mixture of 50% CaCO3, 0.1 g clay mixture of 10% MgCO3, 0.1 g clay mixture of 50% BaCO3, 0.1 g clay mixture of 50% CaO, 0.1 g clay mixture of 10% MgO, and 0.1 g clay mixture of 50% Fe2O3 respectively, to remove 14.07 mg crude oil, below which mechanical means for removing crude oil from oil contaminated water becomes less more effective, from oil contaminated water of volume 25 ml from oil contaminated water at pH 6 and temperature 30oC. All of these materials were treated by naphtha, a petroleum product of boiling range 30oC - 165oC, to remove sorbed crude oil from its surface for further reuse and contaminated naphtha are processed to be distilled for reuse. Characteristics of crude oil and Aswanly clay were investigated by FTIR, X – Ray Fluorescence, X – Ray Diffraction, pour point and centrifuge instruments. Determination of amount of crude oil in water was done by extraction the crude oil with 10 ml n-hexane and measuring absorbance by UV – VIS. Spectrometer. (Journal of Applied Sciences & Environmental Management: 2003 7(1): 25-36)