Scaling sorbent materials for real oil-sorbing applications and environmental disasters

Abstract

There are few feasible options for sorbents, which can be quickly manufactured and deployed in the event of a major oil spill and so every oil spill is an ecological disaster. This paper aims to provide an understanding of what a realistic, full-scale crude oil spill solution would look like based on the performance of the best sorbents currently available, their costs, and their advantages.Adsorbent materials or “sorbents” described here have been a recent target for research toward applications in environmental cleanup, remediation, and hazardous material containment. These materials contain many compositions, syntheses, and practical manufacturing parameters that make most of them practically and logistically unfit to tackle quantities much larger than a single barrel of oil. Different properties of crude oil and nonpolar materials, such as their viscosity, density, and weathering, can also make these materials seem attractive on a lab scale but underperform in field testing and in practical applications. This review addresses the challenges, advantages, and disadvantages of different technical applications of the superior sorbent materials and material types in the literature. In addition, we discuss the different costs and manufacturing challenges of sorbent materials in real oil spills and what a feasible containment sorbent material might look like.

Nanoporous Magnetic Carbon Nanofiber Aerogels with Embedded α-Fe/γ-Fe Core–Shell Nanoparticles for Oil Sorption and Recovery

“…2 Various methods are recommended to recover the oil spill in the water, such as chemical dispersant/emulsified, in situ burning, bioremediation, skimming, and mechanical collection. 3 Among all of these methods, the use of sorbent materials is considered one of the most effective strategies because of the low cost, environmental friendliness, fast performance, high selectivity, ease of fabrication, and good recyclability and has the possibility of complete oil removal. 3−6 Several types of sorbent materials with enhanced hydrophobic/oleophilic properties by surface functionalization have been researched for oil/water sorption or separation.…”

“…Oil spills cause a catastrophic effect on the marine ecosystem and long-term environmental impacts . Various methods are recommended to recover the oil spill in the water, such as chemical dispersant/emulsified, in situ burning, bioremediation, skimming, and mechanical collection . Among all of these methods, the use of sorbent materials is considered one of the most effective strategies because of the low cost, environmental friendliness, fast performance, high selectivity, ease of fabrication, and good recyclability and has the possibility of complete oil removal. − …”

Preparation and Oil Adsorption of Cellulose-graft-poly(butyl acrylate-N,N′-methylene Bisacrylamide)

“…Currently, treatment methods for oil pollution can be broadly categorized into physical, in situ combustion, chemical and biological methods [6,7]. Among these, physical methods employing oil-absorbing materials prove to be one of the swiftest approaches for removing oil spills from water surfaces [8].…”