Speaker
Description
Globally, the ramifications of crude oil spills in the environment are overwhelming and well-documented, especially in marine ecosystems. Such spills' short- and long-term catastrophic effects warrant innovative process-oriented, product-oriented, and environmentally conscious adsorbent synthesis to combat residual oil emulsions in aquatic ecosystems efficiently. This research aims to prepare and test the efficacy of activated carbon (AC) from agricultural wastes for cleaning crude oil spills, in the spirit of biocircular economy, waste valorization, and environmental protection. Triplicate oil spill samples were obtained from an offshore waste management company in the Western Region of Ghana. The AC was prepared in triplicate from the palm nutshell waste (100 kg/replicate) using a two-step process─ carbonization using incomplete combustion with furnace temperature (800–1000 ºC), followed by activation with oxidizing gas at 160 ºC and seven atmospheres for 30 min. The AC characterization, using iodine number, methylene blue value, Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), revealed a high-quality product, comparable to commercial ACs. With varying contact time and AC dosage at room temperature, triplicate batch adsorption studies of the adsorbent dosage (0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7 g)/100 mL of the oil spill for each experimental unit were carried out using standard methods and ultraviolet visible spectrophotometry. Preliminary results demonstrated an oil spill removal rate of 41.11% at an adsorbent dosage of 0.7 g/100 mL of the emulsion, with percentage removal increasing concomitantly with increased adsorbent dose and contact time. The initial findings give compelling evidence of the uniqueness, economic and environmental compatibility of locally engineered bio-based AC as a potential sustainable remedy for crude oil spills, granting an eco-benign way of managing and rehabilitating the marine environment during accidental spills, especially where crude oil drilling has become a booming industry in the country.