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Chemical modification of montmorillonite though popular may be expensive, environmentally noxious and can result in secondary contamination. Therefore, the need for eco-friendly and efficient treatment techniques. The use of thermally enhanced rice husk momtmorillonite combo (TRMC) for aqueous crude oil pollution was evaluated. The physical characterization of the sorbate revealed a light crude oil. Scanning electron microscopy of TRMC and untreated montmorillonite (UM) showed efficient utilization of the pores for crude oil sequestration.Temperatures, pH, initial oil concentration, dosage of sorbent and time were found to be significant in the batch sorption investigation. The heterogeneous surface nature of TRMC was elucidated by the Freundlich and scatchard model analysis. Langmuir monolayer maximum sorption capacity was 5.8 and 9.7 g/g for UM and TRMC respectively and the later found to be higher than most reported sorbents. The pseudo first order model gave better fit than pseudo second order, Bangham and Elovich model in kinetics based on regression and chi-square analysis. Thermodynamics showed a spontaneous, feasible, endothermic and physical sorption process. Regeneration and reusability studies using n-hexane as eluent showed TRMC as suitable, environmental friendly sorbents for oil spill remediation.

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