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Oil spill cleanup using graphene

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Abstract

In this article, we study the use of thermally reduced graphene (TRG) for oil spill cleanup. TRG was synthesized by thermal exfoliation of graphite oxide and characterized by X-ray diffusion, Raman spectroscopy, SEM, TEM, elemental analysis, and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area measurement. Various aspects of the sorption process have been studied including the sorption capacity, the recovery of the adsorbed oil, and the recyclability of TRG. Our results shows that TRG has a higher sorption capacity than any other carbon-based sorbents, with sorption capacity as high as 131 g of oil per gram TRG. With recovery of the sorbed oil via filtration and reuse of TRG for up to six cycles, 1 g of TRG collectively removes approximately 300 g of crude oil. Moreover, the effects of TRG bulk density, pore volume, and carbon/oxygen ratio and the oil viscosity on the sorption process are also discussed.

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Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank Dr. Saeed Alhassan and the Catalysis Group at the Department of Chemical Engineering, the Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi, for assistance with the characterization of TRG.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, The Petroleum Institute, P.O. Box 2533, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Muhammad Z. Iqbal & Ahmed A. Abdala

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  1. Muhammad Z. Iqbal
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  2. Ahmed A. Abdala
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Correspondence to Ahmed A. Abdala.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Iqbal, M.Z., Abdala, A.A. Oil spill cleanup using graphene. Environ Sci Pollut Res 20, 3271–3279 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-012-1257-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-012-1257-6

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