Recycling of thermoplastic polystyrene waste using citrus peel extract for oil spill remediation

Abstract

In this work, we report a low‐cost, less energy intensive, and an innovative way of recycling thermoplastic polystyrene (PS) waste objects into submicron, aligned fibers using extract from citrus peel, an agricultural waste. As‐fabricated recycled PS fabric is then structurally characterized and tested as an oil sorbent material. The hydrophobic‐oleophilic PS fabric is found to absorb 40.5 ± 3.6 g/g of oil, with 77.3% oil retention within 1 h. To investigate the practical application of recycled PS fabric for oil spills remediation, we tested its buoyancy properties in oil‐over‐water static and dynamic system besides examining their reusability. The as‐fabricated fabric floats on water after oil sorption indicating its high buoyancy and therefore can be collected easily after soaking the oil. This work is a simple illustration of systematic analysis of recycling two different waste materials (thermoplastic polystyrene and citrus peels) and reusing them into a more valuable product. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019, 136, 47886.

Hierarchical amphiphilic high‐efficiency oil–water separation membranes from fermentation derived cellulose and recycled polystyrene

“…These membranes were produced by using citrus peel extracts in which thermocol (made up of PS) was dissolved to obtain a viscous solution that was handdrawn to produce nonwoven fibrous fabric. 44 n-Hexane (95% LR) was purchased from the S D Fine-Chem Limited, India. The surfactant, Tween 20 was purchased from the Sigma-Aldrich, India.…”

“…Recycled polystyrene membranes (PS) were obtained from the Carbon Lab, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad. These membranes were produced by using citrus peel extracts in which thermocol (made up of PS) was dissolved to obtain a viscous solution that was hand‐drawn to produce nonwoven fibrous fabric 44 . n‐ Hexane (95% LR) was purchased from the S D Fine‐Chem Limited, India.…”

“…43 The recycled PS membrane was produced by a green, low cost, and low energy process using orange peel extract by hand drawing method. 44 PS nanofibers based oil-water separation membranes have been reported before for the separation of diesel from water. 45 Additionally, PS is used as a sorbent for oil spill cleanup, owing to its hydrophobic nature.…”

“…Recently, our group reported a novel and facile environmentally friendly method for producing amphiphilic nano‐microfibrous composite using in situ growth of nanofibrous BC into hydrophobic microfibrous recycled polystyrene (PS) membrane 43 . The recycled PS membrane was produced by a green, low cost, and low energy process using orange peel extract by hand drawing method 44 . PS nanofibers based oil–water separation membranes have been reported before for the separation of diesel from water 45 .…”

Polydimethylsiloxane‐functionalized polyacrylonitrile nanofibrous aerogels for efficient oil absorption and oil/water separation

“…Among these methods, it is worth noting that three‐dimensional (3D) porous absorbent materials possessing both superhydrophobic and superoleophilic properties are considered to represent one of the most promising and effective approaches for the remediation of oily wastewater, owing to their low cost and high efficiency. Different absorbent materials commonly used to remove oily pollutants from water include natural materials (e.g., zeolites, 10 straw, 11 cotton, 12 sugarcane bagasse, 13 kapok fibers, 14 chitosan, 15 luffa, 16 and citrus peel 17 ) and commercial synthetic materials (e.g., MF, 18 PP, 19 and PS 20 ). However, their low absorption capacity, poor oil/water selectivity, and poor reusability hamper their use in practical applications.…”