Abstract
The usage of natural and synthetic sorbents in order to control oil spills is gaining increasing attention due to environmental concerns. In particular, polyolefins including polypropylene and polyethylene are the most commonly used oil sorbent materials because of their low cost but suffer from low oil absorption capacity. Attempts at trying to increase the surface-to-thickness ratio for improving uptake capacity makes them vulnerable to breakage and impractical for most oil spill applications. Novel super oil sorbent polymer sheets consisting of porous ultrahigh-molecular-weight polyethylene have been prepared. The presented sorbent exhibits extremely high uptake and retention capacities along with a mechanically strong structure. The combination of these factors as well as the cost effectiveness of the material used makes these sheets viable candidates for widespread production and utilization.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 482-488 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Chemical Engineering and Technology |
Volume | 38 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Mar 2015 |
Keywords
- Film sorbent
- Oil sorbent
- Oil spill recovery
- Pickup density
- Porous polymer sheets