Investigation of Sorbents for Removing Oil Spills from Waters

摘要

Laboratory methods have been developed to evaluate floating sorbent materials for removing oil spilled on water. These methods were applied to 49 different sorbent materials belonging to five categories: inorganic, natural organic, polymeric foam, polymeric hydrocarbon, and miscellaneous products. Some of the properties evaluated were oil and water sorption capacity, oil retention, buoyancy retention with and without absorbed oil, effect of petroleum product variation, sorbent/oil coherence, and reusability. Of all the materials evaluated the polymeric foam and the polymeric hydrocarbon products showed the best overall properties for removing oil spilled on water. Of these two groups, the resilient polyurethane foams and the polypropylene fibers were the best materials. (Author)