Scientists offer sponge material to collect petroleum film from water
The Laboratory of Green Energy has presented its new solution.
“The material created by our group, which also includes senior researchers Shamil Galyaltdinov and Vasily Brusko, is a porous sponge modified with carbon nanostructured particles to give the material hydrophobic properties. It absorbs non-polar solvents, but is not wetted by water and therefore does not sink in it,” says Lead Researcher Airat Dimiev.
The density of the material ranges from 0.014 to 0.038 g/cm3 depending on the base used.
“With a single use, 1 gram of material can absorb up to 60 grams of hydrocarbons from hexane (C6H14) to tetradecane (C14P30) and the like,” the chemist adds.
The sponge developed at KFU is ideal for collecting spilled petroleum products such as gasoline, kerosene, and diesel fuel from the surface of water.
“For this purpose, it is convenient to use a material 1 to 3 centimeters thick in the form of mats 1 to 10 square meters in size. The size and thickness of the mats depend on the volume and chemical composition of the spilled petroleum products,” the scientist says. “To collect petroleum products, such mats are simply placed on the surface of the reservoir. They are gently rocked or moved for 1-2 minutes along the surface of the water, during which time the entire organic phase is absorbed into the sponge without a trace. At the same time, water does not penetrate into the sponge. Depending on the thickness, a mat with an area of 1 square meter can completely collect a solid film of oil products from a surface of up to 100-300 square meters in one cycle. The organic phase is removed from the sponge by simple mechanical squeezing, after which the material is ready for reuse. At the same time, the carbon coating is not washed off from its surface.
The innovative material is made of an inexpensive sponge base, which can be either Russian or foreign-made. The cost of the carbon coating is also low due to its low consumption. The nano-carbon material is domestic.
When asked whether it is possible to collect fuel oil from the Black Sea, which got there as a result of recent tanker accidents, using the innovative sponge, Dimiev answers, “The developed material is designed to collect liquid oil products present on the surface of the water in the form of a film. Currently, fuel oil in the Black Sea is in a semi-solid waxy state, including on the seabed. On a hot summer day, when the water and the shoreline warm up, the fuel oil should turn into a liquid flowing state. Then the technology we have developed can work.”
The researchers are currently preparing to file a patent application for the invention.