Kraft lignin: a novel alternative to oil spill cleanup recycling industrial waste

Abstract

Oil spills occur frequently due to negligence or through acts of vandalism or war. Marine oil spills damage marine, coastal, and ter- restrial habitats, as well as impact coastal economies. In order to palliate such issues, researchers are working to develop cost ef- fective and environmentally safe methods of adsorbing oil from oil spills. In this paper, a complex chemical compound found in the secondary cell walls of plants and ex- tracted as a waste product of the pulping process known as kraft lignin was tested as an adsorbing material for oil spills. Lignin is light, and its high surface energy and wet- tability allow it to interact with charged oil droplets. It was found that lignin can absorb 80% of the carbon introduced into water by oil spills within 12 hours of treatment. This study demonstrates a novel method for resolving oil spills using kraft lignin. After it is saturated with oil, lignin can be inciner- ated, and its high calorific value can be used to produce energy from what would other- wise be a waste product. INTRODUCTION