The Use of Corncobs and Wood Dust as Adsorbent in Oil Spill Removal

Abstract

This research work investigates the use of agricultural waste (corncobs and wood dust) as adsorbents for the removal of oil spills. The result have shown that ordinary corn corbs and wood dust can be used as adsorbent for crude oil spill removal, the sulphurnated form of these adsorbents has the highest efficiency in terms the adsobility and retention capacity, due to their increased porosity. Analysis of the results shows that sample of sulphurnated corn cobs with particle size 1.40 mm has an appreciable retention capacity of 59% for crude oil compared to ordinary corncobs of the same particle size, which has a retention capacity of 55%. And analysis of the recovered crude oil shows negligible changes in its properties from the original crude. Hence it was concluded that con corb and wood dust are effective adsorbent, but their sulphurnated form is more efficient in crude oil spill removal