Cellulose-Based Absorbents for Oil Contaminant Removal

Abstract

With the rapidly increasing exploitation, transportation, and utilization of fossil oils, oil spillage accidents occur frequently worldwide. Oil pollution can lead to a serious loss ofvaluable resources on coastal and marine ecosystems during a long period. Besides, industrial waste oil may have a broad impact on city ecological environments and human health. It is thus urgently required to solve oil pollution efficiently. Generally, current strategies are classified into three groups: (1) burn- ing the oil spill in situ, (2) dispersing the oil in water by adding dispersants to facilitate nature degradation, and (3) extracting the oil from the water. The last method seems the “greenest” because both the absorbent and the oil can be recycled. Among the absorbents, cellulose-based absorbents are the first choices due to their environmental friendliness ofrenewability and biodegradability, good mechanical properties, low density, high porosity, high absorption capacity, and cost-effectiveness. In this chapter, we intend to demonstrate the following aspects of cellulose-based absorbents, including (1) raw materials: properties and pre- treatments, (2) fabrication of the various absorbents, (3) characterization of the structure and properties, (4) cellulose-related absorbents and other applications, and (5) discussions and future scope. This work aims to draw a full outline ofthe cellulose absorbents to date and to promote the understanding and developing of these materials in the future.