Oil Palm's Empty Fruit Bunch as a Sorbent Material in Filter System for Oil-Spill Clean Up

Abstract

Oil pollution such as diesel poses a significant threat to the environment. Due to this, there is increasing interest in using natural materials mainly from agricultural waste as organic oil spill sorbents. Oil palm's empty fruit bunch (EFB), a cost-effective material, non-toxic, renewable resource, and abundantly available in Malaysia, contains cellulosic materials that have been proven to show a good result in pollution treatment. This study evaluated the optimum screening part of EFB that efficiently absorbs oil and the physicochemical characterisation of untreated and treated EFB fibre using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The treatment conditions were optimised using one-factor-at-a-time (OFAT), which identified optimal treatment conditions of 170 °C, 20 min, 0.1 g/cm³, and 10% diesel, resulting in 23 mL of oil absorbed. The predicted model was highly significant in statistical Response Surface Methodology (RSM) and confirmed that all the parameters (temperature, time, packing density, and diesel concentration) significantly influenced the oil absorbed. The predicted values in RSM were 175 °C, 22.5 min, 0.095 g/cm³, and 10%, which resulted in 24 mL of oil absorbed. Using the experimental values generated by RSM, 175 °C, 22.5 min, 0.095 g/cm³, and 10%, the highest oil absorption achieved was 24.33 mL. This study provides further evidence, as the data suggested that RSM provided a better approach to obtain a high efficiency of oil absorbed.

Keywords: absorbed; agriculture waste; diesel spills; fibre; sorption capacity; treated.

Figure 1

Screening part of EFB samples and efficiency of oil and water absorbed. UNT: Untreated; T: Treated.

Figure 2

Comparison of IR spectra between EFB untreated and treated with 170 °C samples before wetting with oil. UNT: Untreated.

Figure 3

Comparison of IR spectra between EFB untreated and treated with 170 °C samples after wetting with oil. UNT: Untreated.

Figure 4

SEM images of samples (a) untreated, (b) treated with 170 °C at 20 min, (c) untreated wetted with oil, and (d) treated with 170 °C at 20 min wetted with oil at different magnification (500×).

Figure 5

Effects of temperature on EFB treated fibre. Data obtained were the average efficiency of oil absorbed (%), the efficiency of water absorbed (%), and sorption capacity (g/g) on temperature. Vertical bars indicate SEM of three replicates.

Figure 6

Effects of time on EFB treated fibre. Data obtained were the average efficiency of oil absorbed (%), the efficiency of water absorbed (%), and sorption capacity (g/g) on temperature. Vertical bars indicate SEM of three replicates.

Figure 7

Effects of packing density on EFB treated fibre. Data obtained were the average efficiency of oil absorbed (%), the efficiency of water absorbed (%), and sorption capacity (g/g) on temperature. Vertical bars indicate SEM of three replicates.

Figure 8

Effects of oil concentration on EFB treated fibre. Data obtained were the average efficiency of oil absorbed (%), the efficiency of water absorbed (%), and sorption capacity (g/g) on temperature. Vertical bars indicate SEM of three replicates.

Figure 9

3D Contour plots generated by Design Expert (Stat Ease, Inc., Minneapolis, USA) of the significantly interacting model terms: (a) A: temperature and B: time, (b) C: packing density and A: temperature, (c) D: oil concentration and A: temperature, (d) C: packing density and B: time, (e) D: oil concentration and B: time, and (f) D: oil concentration and C: packing density.

Figure 9

3D Contour plots generated by Design Expert (Stat Ease, Inc., Minneapolis, USA) of the significantly interacting model terms: (a) A: temperature and B: time, (b) C: packing density and A: temperature, (c) D: oil concentration and A: temperature, (d) C: packing density and B: time, (e) D: oil concentration and B: time, and (f) D: oil concentration and C: packing density.

Figure 9

3D Contour plots generated by Design Expert (Stat Ease, Inc., Minneapolis, USA) of the significantly interacting model terms: (a) A: temperature and B: time, (b) C: packing density and A: temperature, (c) D: oil concentration and A: temperature, (d) C: packing density and B: time, (e) D: oil concentration and B: time, and (f) D: oil concentration and C: packing density.