Sustainable Reuse of Char Waste for Oil Spill Recovery Foams

• Published in: Water, air, and soil pollution Vol. 231; no. 6
• Main Authors: Piperopoulos, E., Calabrese, L., Mastronardo, E., Proverbio, E., Milone, C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.06.2020; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Carbon nanotubes; Catalysts; Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts; Crude oil; Cytology; Earth and Environmental Science; Economic conditions; Economics; Environment; Environmental impact; Environmental monitoring; Foaming; Foams; Hydrogeology; Kerosene; Morphology; Nanotechnology; Nanotubes; Oil spills; Petroleum mining; Silicones; Slurries; Soil Science & Conservation; Sorption; Water Quality/Water Pollution; Sorption; Carbon nanotubes; Silicone foam; Oil recovery; Char
• ISSN: 0049-6979; 1573-2932
• DOI: 10.1007/s11270-020-04671-2

The aim of this work is the employment of char waste in the synthesis of silicon foams for oil spill remediation and the comparison analysis with carbon nanotubes-filled foams. The foams are obtained by foaming a slurry constituted by a silicone matrix with CNT or char filler (7.7 wt%) in presence of a Sn-based catalyst. All the investigated materials present a foam morphology with an open/closed cell structure. Each foam was tested in three used common oils (kerosene, crude oil, and pump oil). Also, hydrophilic behavior of the foam was investigated. CNT showed a 700% sorption capacity in light oils (almost 7 g oil /g foam in kerosene); on the contrary, char foam evidenced the higher sorption efficiency in heavier oils; in particular, it reaches 130% in pump oil (1.3 g oil /g foam ). All the filled foams are reusable. The reuse increases the foam efficiency and decreases the economic and environmental impacts.