Research Progress of Biomass-Based Porous Oil-Absorbing Materials

As oil is now an important resource for the survival and development of mankind,the consumption of oil continues to increase each year,and there have been a number of major oil spills in history,such as the oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.Therefore,oil spills during storage and transportation have become an issue of serious concern.Current methods such as incineration and chemical methods cause secondary environmental pollution and fail to enable resource recovery.The adsorption method by porous materials has attracted worldwide attention due to its simplicity,portability,and efficiency.It has become an important factor to explore how porous adsorption materials can adsorb efficiently and reduce environmental pollution.Biomass resources are abundant,cost-effective,biodegradable,and sustainable,which have been extensively explored for the production of porous materials.Herein,recent advances in cellulose-based,chitosan-based,wood-based and other biomassbased oil-absorbing porous materials are summarized,and cellulose-based porous materials,such as nanocellulose,bacterial cellulose,and regenerated cellulose and their related derivatives,are further expanded.In addition,typical environmentally friendly manufacturing methods and the oil adsorption capacities of various oil-absorbing porous materials are also discussed.Compared with the traditional petrochemical adsorption materials,the development advantages of biomass porous oil absorption materials are analyzed.The reasons hindering the popularization and use of oil-absorbing biomass materials are summarized and the future application fields are prospected.

Recent progress and future prospects of oil-absorbing materials

Oil and organic solvent contamination, derived from oil spills and organic solvent leakage, has been recognized as one of the major environmental issues imposing a serious threat to both human and ecosystem health. Among the various presented technologies applied for oil/water separation, oil absorption process has been explored widely and offers satisfactory results especially with surface modified oil-absorbing material and/or hybrid absorbents. In this review, we summarize the recent research activities involved in the designing strategies of oil-absorbing absorbents and their application in oil absorption. Then, an extensive list of various oil-absorbing materials from literature, including polymer materials, porous inorganic materials and biomass materials, has been compiled and the oil adsorption capacities toward various types of oils and organic solvents as available in the literature are presented along with highlighting and discussing the various factors involved in the designing of oil-absorbing absorbents tested so far for oil/water separation. Finally, some future trends and perspectives in oil-absorbing material are outlined.

Plugging performance and mechanism of an oil-absorbing gel for lost circulation control while drilling in fractured formations

Lost circulation of drilling fluid is one of the most common engineering problems in the drilling process of fractured formations.In this study,an oil-absorbing polymer gel synthesized using compound monomers with rigid and flexible chains was applied to control the oil-based drilling fluid loss while drilling.The microstructure,oil-absorbing performance,and plugging performance the gel was investigated.A large number of dense pores on the surface of the gel were observed,which allowed the oil molecules to enter the internal space of the gel.The initial oil absorption capacity of the gel was fast,and it increased with the increase in the temperature and decrease in the particle size,reaching 20.93 g/g at140℃.At a high temperature of 140℃,the bearing pressure capacity of the gel formula containing particles of different particle sizes reached 7.6 MPa for a fracture of a width of 3 mm,showing that the oil-absorbing gel have excellent plugging performance at high temperature.Plugging mechanism of the gel was investigated through visualized fracture plugging experiments.Results show that the dynamic migratio n,particle-swelling,particle-bridging,particle-aggregation,deformation-filling,and compaction-plugging contribute to the whole lost circulation control process,reflecting that the plugging performance can be effectively enhanced by improving the aggregation and filling degrees of the gel with different particle sizes.

“Several birds with one stone”strategy of pH/thermoresponsive flame-retardant/photothermal bactericidal oil-absorbing material for recovering complex spilled oil

Although many material designs or strategic methods have been proposed for treating oil spills and oily wastewater,the complex oily state,dealing with the harsh operating conditions of oil–water separation(such as the recovery of viscous spilled crude oil,bacteria-containing oily wastewater,and removal of spilled oil under fire),and the autorecycling of oil and absorption materials remain a great challenge.This work proposed an ingenious design strategy of“several birds with one stone”to prepare p H/thermoresponsive flame-retardant/photothermal bactericidal P-Fe_(3)O_(4)-polydopamine(PDA)@melamine–formaldehyde(MF)foams.This design makes the foams remarkably effective in the recovery of spilled viscous crude oil as well as in the separation of bacteria-containing oily emulsions,particularly for instant fire extinguishing by magnetically controlled oil absorption as well as for fire alarms.The photothermal effect and p H response induce a change in the surface wettability of the foams,facilitating excellent autoadsorption/desorption of the spilled oil.The photothermal bactericidal activity and fouling resistance of the foam are beneficial to the separation of bacteria-containing oily wastewater.Outstanding flame-retardant properties and maneuverable magnetic control enable the foam to rapidly recover the spilled oil in a large range of fires,extinguish fires instantly,and facilitate early fire warning.The proposed strategy is expected to inspire further research on treating oil spills under complex conditions.

Preparation and properties of a silver particle-coated and 1-dodecanethiol-modified superhydrophobic melamine sponge for oil/water separation

A Ag particle-coated and 1-dodecanethiolmodified melamine sponge(Ag-DDT-MS)was prepared through surface roughness by coating silver particles and subsequent grafting of a hydrophobic long hydrocarbon chain.Superhydrophobic and 3D porous Ag-DDT-MS was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy,scanning electron microscope,energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy,and X-ray diffraction.The water contact angle of Ag-DDT-MS reached 159.2°.Ag-DDT-MS exhibited excellent absorption capacity for high viscous oils and organic solvents,ranging from 42.8 to 105.2 g∙g−1.The absorbed oils can be easily collected by the mechanical pressing process,and the oil recovery rate was satisfactory,more than 90%after 20 recycles.Ag-DDT-MS material also demonstrated good stability and excellent compressionrecovery ability,keeping 88.6%of the initial height after ten compression-release cycles.