Cost-Effective Natural Adsorbents for Remediation of Oil-Contaminated Water

Abstract

Oil-contaminated water is among the most significant environmental challenges from various industries and manufacturing processes. Oily water poses a severe environmental threat and is toxic to many forms of life. This study aims to investigate the potential of natural adsorbents, namely animal bones (ABs) and anise residues (ARs), for removing oil from water using a batch adsorption process. The effects of adsorbent dosage (0.2–2 g), oil concentration (200–1000 mg/L), and contact time (30–120 min) on the adsorption process were evaluated. This study is the first to employ ABs and ARs as adsorbents for oil removal, and their efficacy for this purpose has not been previously reported. The results indicate that ABs exhibit superior oil removal capacity compared to ARs. Specifically, ABs removed 45 mg/g of oil from water, while ARs removed only 30 mg/g of oil. Furthermore, ABs achieved a percentage removal rate of 94%, whereas ARs had a percentage removal rate of 70%. The adsorbents were characterised using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometry, contact angle measurements before and after adsorption, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). In addition to the experimental analysis, several kinetic and adsorption models were employed to investigate the adsorption process. The pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order models were used to represent the kinetics of the reaction, while the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were used to represent the adsorption isotherm. Marquardt’s percent standard deviation (MPSD) error function was used to confirm the fit of the experimental data with the isotherm model, in addition to the correlation coefficient R2. The isotherm studies indicated that the experimental data of the two adsorbents used with the Langmuir isotherm model were consistent with one another. The kinetics study demonstrated that the adsorption process using the two adsorbents adheres to a pseudo-second-order kinetics model.

Recent Advances in Porous Bio-Polymer Composites for the Remediation of Organic Pollutants

“…New methods of cleaning are the membrane bio-reactors, the use of fillers and solidifiers, and the use of adsorbents [ 101 ]. Among newer methods, adsorbents are of interest due to their simplicity of use and there being no secondary pollution or damage to the environment [ 102 ]. A suitable adsorbent in this process must be hydrophobic and have a high oil adsorption capacity.…”

Polyvinyl alcohol nanofibrous mat impregnated with ClCNTs/Fe2O3 nanocomposite for absorption of diesel oil in water

“…Various techniques have been developed and applied for treating water that is polluted by oil; namely, membrane filtration [9][10][11], gravity separation [12], air flotation [13], bioprocesses [14,15], membrane bioreactor [16], chemical coagulation [17], adsorption [18][19][20], electrocoagulation [21], absorption [9,[22][23][24], and electro-flotation [25]. Of these, absorption is one of the most efficient methods of removing oil pollutants from water.…”