No abstract

Crude oil spills have tremendous effects on our environment and poses severe pollution problems around the world as hazardous chemicals such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are released into the ecosystem. The clean-up of these spills using natural adsorbent is considered as an eco-friendly and cost effective method of handling the oil spills due to its high oil sorption capacity and biodegradability. Coconut coir predominantly found in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria was carbonized and chemically activated using Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) for the removal of crude oil spill. The kinetic data were fitted into various kinetic models with Pseudo-second order model showing best fit with a correlation coefficient R 2 =0.999 and the Boyd model revealed that the adsorption was controlled by internal transport mechanism and film-diffusion was the major mode of adsorption. Thus, Coconut Coir Activated Carbon (CCAC) showed significant capability to be used as a low-cost, re-generable and eco-friendly adsorbent in oil spill clean-up. A mathematical model was also developed using multivariate numerical optimization method and was validated by fitting it into the experimental data which gave a correlation coefficient R 2 =0.997. Hence, the empirical model developed using multivariate numerical optimization method can be used for the design of industrial treatment plant.