Assessment of Ceiba Pentandra (L.) Gaertn. (Kapok) as Absorbent Material for Oil Spill Control

A biomass product, kapok (Ceiba pentandra), identified as having high oil absorption capacity was thoroughly assessed for its feasibility to be used as an absorbent material for oil spill control. The effect of packing density on the oil retention and the capability to separate the binary oil-water mixtures were evaluated. The efficiency of kapok fiber when subjected to cyclic absorption test to ascertain the reusability of the kapok was also investigated. The oil selected for this work was diesel. In loose form kapok can absorbed about 33 gg-1 (oil/kapok). When packed as a fixed-bed in a glass column, the absorption capacity dropped with increasing bed density. In this study, the absorption capacity dropped to 28 gg-1 and 11 gg-1 at packing density of 0.008gcm-3 and 0.04gcm-3 respectively. The capability of kapok to separate the oil from various simulated oil-water mixtures, such as 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50% by volume, were excellent. Only a small amount of water was observed in the oil recovered from the desorption process. A complete separation cannot be achieved as some of the water may form small droplets and trapped together with the oil in the kapok inter-fiber. Nevertheless, a complete separation was achieved when a slight modification on the kapok packing assembly was introduced. The cyclic absorption test showed that the kapok assembly lost about 35% of its virgin sorption capacity after the 5th cycle.