Oil spill cleanup by raw cellulose-based absorbents: a green and sustainable approach

ABSTRACT

The oil spillage and maritime pollution due to spilled oil have been affecting human life and the environment in the long term seriously. The methods and techniques presently used to recover oil spills must be carefully considered to avoid creating unexpected secondary pollution as well as time-consuming. Therefore, the application methods for spilled oil recovery should be available, fast responsive, economical, highly absorbing, and nontoxic for the environment. The use of absorbents originated from natural organic byproducts is considered a suitable method for treating spilled oil because of their outstanding physical properties for the sustainable strategies of environmental protection. In this review paper, the factors affecting the oil absorption capacity of the raw cellulose-originated natural organic absorbents such as the nature of absorbent and properties of spilled oil are thoroughly analyzed. Moreover, the suggestion of applications of raw cellulose-absorbents in combination with other methods was also mentioned in detail. In general, the utilization of raw cellulose-based absorbents could absorb the spilled oil with a maximum yield of around 70%, and raw cellulose-based absorbents could be only suitable for near-shore oil spills. In future work, advanced absorbents based on cellulose should be further investigated and developed to increase the efficiency of spilled oil recovery aiming to satisfy the challenges relating to the disaster of oil spills in maritime operation.

KEYWORDS:

• Spilled oil
• natural absorbent
• raw cellulose
• marine environment
• sustainable strategy
• oil absorption capacity

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