Treatment of oil spills using organo-fly ash

Crude oil released to the marine environment through accidental spillage or drainage from land causes serious damage to the environment and marine life. Treatment of oil spills remains a challenge to environmental scientists and technologists. Sorption is a popular technique applied for treatment of oil spillage. In this paper, the potential of fly ash, a thermal power plant waste organically modified using the cationic surfactant, hexadecyltrimethylammonium (HDTMA), to remove crude oil and weathered oil contaminated seawater (WOCS) was investigated. The efficacy of the surface modification of fly ash (FA) by HDTMA is demonstrated. The results presented and discussed in this work pointed out that the modified fly ash (HDTMA-FA) could successfully be used to remove fresh as well as weathered crude oil.

polar interaction between the long hydrocarbon chains of HDTMA with the oil. The study shows that HDTMA-FA obtained after modifying fly ash, a waste material, can be favorably deployed as a sorbent for oil spillage. The sorption behavior of fly ash was greatly enhanced when organically modified with HDTMA. HDTMA-FA was also effective in removing dissolved organic carbon (DOC) present in weathered oil contaminated seawater (WOCS). This makes HDTMA-FA a better candidate compared to conventional sorbents. It was also observed that when the lighter oil fraction of the crude oil was increased, the sorption capacity was enhanced. This is also an advantage of this material in contrast to other sorbents like straw, which cannot retain large proportions of light oil. The predominant mode of sorption is probably the hydrophobic or non-