Current development of polyurethane foam as adsorbent filler: a review

Abstract

Adsorption becomes one of the most promising separation methods for contaminants removal because it is easy to apply and offers efficient and environmental-friendly process. Adsorption by powder adsorbent has the advantages of high capacity and fast kinetics to remove contaminants in wastewater due to the large surface area. However, powder adsorbent has the weakness of difficulty to separate the small particle size of adsorbent in batch mode of adsorbent-solution system. Therefore, to solve this disadvantages, there is one way to facilitate the separation of adsorbents by supporting the particles of adsorbent at a polyurethane foam (PUF). The PUF with filled adsorbents allows the adsorbent to interact freely with pollutants and be easily separated from polluted water. Studies show that the integration of adsorbents in the PUF has the potential to absorb various contaminants and it can be separated easily from contaminated water.