ASSESSMENT OF SOYA BEAN HUSK FOR CRUDE OIL SPILL CLEANUP

Abstract

Soya bean husk, a readily available, cheap and biodegradable lignocellulosic wastes was used in this study as a sorbent material for the removal of Escravos crude oil from seawater in order to assess its oleophilicity and hydrophobicity. The oil and water sorption performance of the sorbent was investigated using five different particle size ranges (4000-1000, 1000-500, 500-105, 105-53 and <53 µm) of soya bean husk on different thickness of oil layer (3, 4.5 and 6 mm) over the seawater. The morphology, functional groups, density and buoyancy of the husk were determined as a prelude to assessing the oil and water sorption of the biomass. The highest oil sorption capacity rate was recorded by 105 – 53 µm particle size range (particle D) on 3 mm oil. The maximum oil sorption capacity obtained over 4.5 and 6 mm oil layer thicknesses were 7.4383 g oil/g sorbent with particle D (105 – 53 µm) at forty minutes and 4.8189 g oil/g sorbent with particle B (1000 – 500 µm) also at forty minutes, respectively. Particles in the five size ranges recorded highest sorption rates within the first ten minutes on the three oil layer thicknesses investigated in this work. The oil sorption capacity of the sorbent is moderate; it was higher than 7 g/g. The oil sorption kinetic model fitted fairly well to the inverse exponential function, which is indicative of diffusion mechanism for the oil sorption