Oil Spill Sorbents: Testing Protocol and Certification Listing Program

Abstract

Environment Canada's Emergencies Engineering Division is spearheading a program in conjunction with the Canadian General Standards Board that would see the development of a certification and listing program in addition to a national standard for the testing of sorbent materials. Funding for this program is provided by Environment Canada (EC), Canadian Coast Guard (CCG), Marine Spill Response Corporation (MSRC), U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), and U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS). The test methods are based upon those defined by the American Society for Testing and Materials and previous test methods developed by Environment Canada for our series of reports entitled Selection Criteria and Laboratory Evaluation of Oil Spill Sorbents. This series, which was started in 1975, encompasses a number of commercially available oil spill sorbents tested with different petroleum products and hydrocarbon solvents. The testing program will categorize the sorbents according to their operating characteristics. The main categories are oil spills on water, oil spills on land, and industrial use. The characteristics we will be evaluating with the new test protocols include initial and maximum sorption capacities, water pickup, buoyancy, reuse potential, retention profile, disintegration (material integrity), and ease of application and retrieval. In the near future we plan to incorporate changes to the test that would involve increasing our list of test liquids to encompass spills in an industrial setting, in addition to testing sorbent booms and addressing the disposal problem.

Application of Cogon Grass (Imperata cylindrica) as Biosorbent in Diesel-Filter System for Oil Spill Removal

“…Generally, plant fibres showed a stronger affinity for water than for oil. High water absorption is undesirable as it might induce dimensional instability and potential difficulties in cellulosic products like bowing, cupping and swelling [31,32]. As shown by the result, treated CG absorbed oil better than untreated cogon grass, and thus it was used for subsequent experiments.…”

Pomegranate Peels Powder for the Remediation of Oil Polluted Water from Waste Lubricating Oil

“…Pomegranate peels powder as sorbent material was subjected to evaluation using water uptake and buoyancy tests in static condition. The evaluation was conducted according to the test methods described in [12]. In static condition, the sorbent was placed in a glass vessel filled with approximately 7.5 cm deep layer of de-ionized water.…”

Experimental Investigation of Thermal Modification Influence on Sorption Qualities of Biosorbents

“…It is filled with approximately 1 l of water which reaches a depth of about 65 mm in the experimental vessel. As the test sorbent is bulk, a percolator is used for its collection from the water surface [3,11,12].…”

“…An oil product is spilled on the water surface. The thickness of the spilled layer is about 5 mm [3,11,12].…”