Comparative Study of oil Adsorbent using Corn Chaff and Coconut Fibre

Abstract

The issue of oil pollution has been an important concern to oil producing nations of the world due to its serious environmental impact; therefore, necessary actions needs to be taken to prevent or reduce this type of pollution and their environmental consequence. Most materials used for solving the pollution menace are effective and very expensive to procure due to the limited or scarcity of starting material and the processes of transforming such precursor to useful adsorbent. Natural organic sorbents are emerging as proper choice of oil spill cleanup due to their availability, low cost and eco-friendliness. In this study, adsorptive capability of a functionalized low cost effective corn chaff and coconut fibre were investigated and compared. Batch adsorption experiment which is provides data for large scale adsorption or continuous adsorption systems was adopted. The adsorptive capability of these materials were subjected to various tests which include checking of the effect of sorbent contact time and adsorbent particle size on oil adsorption capacity as evaluation for the pure crude oil and mixture of crude oil and water removal. The result showed that coconut fibre is more effective in oil spill clean-up than corn chaff. The physical characterization of the raw adsorbent was determined in the laboratory while the chemical characterization of the raw and functionalized adsorbent was done using Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) analysis. This research has shown that both corn chaff and coconut fibres are potential adsorbents for remediation of oil pollution in other to help maitain clean and seren environment where such challenges are prominent.