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The recent oil spill off the Brazilian coast serves as an alert for research to be carried out that includes biotechnological processes and products for cleaning marine environments. Therefore, this work aims to compare the use of residual coconut fibers (Cocos nucifera L.) in natura, pretreated with Protic Ionic Liquid (PIL) [2-HEA] [Ac] (innovative treatment) and by mercerization/acetylation (traditional treatment) as a biosorbent of petroleum spilled in the marine environment in a hydrodynamic simulation on a laboratory scale. The study of the kinetics and adsorption equilibrium were performed to determine the limiting mechanism of adsorption, as well as the maximum petroleum adsorption capacity for the coconut fibers studied. Characterizations of the fibers were carried out using SEM and FITR, and the kinetics and sorption equilibrium tests with petroleum from the Campos Basin and saline water. It was possible to observe that a minimum time of 5 min of contact between the adsorbent and adsorbent is necessary for biosorption to occur. The fibers treated with PIL (4.63 g/g) had greater sorption capacity, the fiber in natura (3.62 g/g) less capacity and the fiber with mercerization/acetylation treatment (4.26 g/g) has sorption with intermediate values. The kinetic model that best fitted the experimental data was pseudo-second order, indicating chemosorption as the limiting step of adsorption. The sorption equilibrium model chosen was Sips, determining adsorption in multilayer (Freundlich) with low concentrations of petroleum and in monolayer (Langmuir) with high concentrations. Based on these results, it can be said that the coconut fibers (Cocos nucifera L.) treated have a greater capacity to adsorb petroleum than the fibers in natura, and the fibers treated with PIL [2-HEA][Ac] have greater sorption capacity, among those evaluated, to be used in oil spills.

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Environmental accidents involving spills of oil and its derivatives in mangroves present themselves as difficult problems to be solved in the short term, as for example in the construction of emergency strategies to combat the arrival of oil stains and fragments. Petroleum its derivatives and the residues generated in this chain, have a complex mixture of hydrocarbons and are considered dangerous substances. This mixture is difficult to degrade and can cause multiple problems in the ecosystem. Our developed biofiber barrier removes oil more than five times in relation to its mass in a simple way and in a short time. However when the spilled oil reaches the mangroves, other biotechnologies were developed and applied such as phytoremediation (87% efficiency), the use of microalgae (94% efficiency) and the use of fungi and bacteria (70% efficiency). This chapter will present biotechnologies developed, patented and applied in cases of oil spills in tropical mangrove of Brazil. These generated biotechnologies have been applied together with civil society in tropical ecosystems that were hit by the Venezuelan oil spill in 2019. The use of advanced molecular biology (studies of genomics, transcriptome, proteomics and metabolomics) in the biotechnologies presented has shown a promising path to faster, viable economically and ecologically correct mangrove restoration.

Oil and derivatives leaks are growing concerns worldwide, as they harm the environment, the socio-economic sector, and human beings. Therefore, alternative, and sustainable ways, such as bioadsorption with vegetable fibers, have been studied to clean these oils and derivatives effectively and non-aggressively. In this work, a patent prospection was carried out in the Espacenet® database and the National Institute of Industrial Property - (INPI). The evolution, origin, and applications were analyzed, and the most used fibers in the patents were found. As a result, the first patent was filed in 1999, and the countries that filed the most patents were Japan (45%), Brazil (28%), and China (25%). It is also seen that the most used fibers are cotton and coconut due to their wide availability around the world. Therefore, the development of technologies that use vegetable fibers to clean spilled oil and derivatives has excellent potential since they are environmentally and economically favorable.