Investigation of Cellulose-Based Aerogels for Oil Spill Removal.

Oil pollution caused by heavy shipping traffic in the Baltic Sea could be removed by the help of highly porous aerogels made from the waste. These could be produced from environmentally friendly cellulose, e.g., from paper waste, but would have to be hydrophobized for oil sorption. Such a cellulose aerogel was investigated in this research work. Six types of aerogel with 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 wt% cellulose with porosities in the range of 96–98% stabilized by unsaturated polyester as cross-linker have been produced. Aerogel's sorption capacity as well as its regeneration for sorption of crude oil, marine diesel oil, and biodiesel sorption from water surface and mechanical strength has been estimated. It was found out that crude oil sorption capacity reach 29.67 ± 0.39 g g⁻¹, biodiesel—29.07 ± 0.26 g g⁻¹, while marine diesel oil—26.26 ± 0.39 g g⁻¹. The aerogel with 0.5 wt% cellulose shows the best sorption properties after 10 cycles of the sorption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]