Oil Sorption Using Kaolinite and its Potential Importance in the Remediation of oil Spills

Abstract

Kaolinites are the most widely recognized clay minerals found in the topsoil complex and can occur as a result of weathered silicate rocks and mineral. Adsorption techniques are regarded as one of the most effective methods for the remediation of oil-spills. Oil spills are worldwide issue and contaminate both soil and water. This research investigates the adsorption of oil spills using kaolinite. This is achieved by determining the effectiveness of kaolinite as oil adsorption material and feasibility of kaolinite re-adsorption of oil after burning.  The feasibility of re-used fresh and re-used burned contaminated kaolinite for re-adsorption of oil was studied. Three separate oil adsorption experiment were conducted in the laboratory with fresh and re-used kaolinite white superfine British clay likewise burned and re-used burned kaolinite samples. Each of the experiments was performed with five replicates using 50ml of Mobil super 1000 15W40 Multigrade motor oil using 5, 15 and 25 g per each of the four samples. The fresh kaolinite sample has the highest percentage of oil adsorption of 58.66, 84.94 and 92.82 for 5, 15 and 25 g respectively. The re-used kaolinite sample had oil adsorption of 24.08, 73.04 and 81.76 % for the same respective weights. The burned kaolinite sample had oil adsorption of 50.16, 77.36 and 85.56 % for the same receptivity weights. However, least oil adsorption of 20.16, 69.36 and 76.16 % for the same weights was observed in the re-used burned kaolinite sample. Therefore, kaolinites are highly effective for oil adsorption.  The results obtained for these experiments using each of these samples were analysed using ANOVA single factor and descriptive statistics. P-values were < 0.05, providing evidence of statistically significant differences between oil adsorption of the various samples.