Premium
Application of Strong Porous Polymer Sheets for Superior Oil Spill Recovery
Author(s) -
Saleem Junaid,
Bazargan Alireza,
Barford John,
McKay Gordon
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
chemical engineering and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.403
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1521-4125
pISSN - 0930-7516
DOI - 10.1002/ceat.201400068
Subject(s) - sorbent , polyethylene , materials science , oil spill , porosity , polymer , polypropylene , chemical engineering , absorption capacity , absorption (acoustics) , petroleum engineering , waste management , environmental science , composite material , organic chemistry , adsorption , chemistry , environmental engineering , engineering
The usage of natural and synthetic sorbents in order to control oil spills is gaining increasing attention due to environmental concerns. In particular, polyolefins including polypropylene and polyethylene are the most commonly used oil sorbent materials because of their low cost but suffer from low oil absorption capacity. Attempts at trying to increase the surface‐to‐thickness ratio for improving uptake capacity makes them vulnerable to breakage and impractical for most oil spill applications. Novel super oil sorbent polymer sheets consisting of porous ultrahigh‐molecular‐weight polyethylene have been prepared. The presented sorbent exhibits extremely high uptake and retention capacities along with a mechanically strong structure. The combination of these factors as well as the cost effectiveness of the material used makes these sheets viable candidates for widespread production and utilization.