Chemically treated Posidonia oceanica fibers as a potential sorbent for oil spill clean up

Posidonia oceanica (PO) fibers were used as biodegradable solid waste material in the removal of oil spills from seawater. In the present study, PO fibers were chemically treated using H3PO4, KOH, ZnCl2 and H2O2. The Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy were used to compare and to determine the structure of the raw and the chemically-treated PO fibers. The main parameters studied in the two systems, a mixture system of oil and water and a system with only oil or only water, were the chemical solutions concentrations, initial oil concentration and time contact. The results revealed that PO fibers treated with phosphoric acid (H3PO4) showed an enhancement of oil sorption of 12% in oil/water layer, compared to raw PO fibers. An increase of hydrophobicity was also observed with treated fibers as revealed by the 50% decrease in water sorption capacity. The isotherm and kinetic models were determined to reveal the nature and the mechanism of the sorption. Langmuir isotherm appeared to be the best fitting model showing a one-layer oil sorption onto PO fibers. In addition, the results fitted well with the pseudo-second order kinetic model compared to pseudo-first order representing the chemical sorption of oil. The results indicated that the treated biosorbent could be used as biodegradable material to clean-up oil spills in aqueous solution. •PO fibres were tested for oil and water sorption capacities to clean-up oil spills.•The raw fibers were able to sorb more water than oil.•H3PO4 treatment greatly enhanced the oil sorption capacity of PO fibers.•Kinetic and isotherm models revealed a monolayer oil sorption with chemical bonds.•Prepared PO fibres may be considered as a potential material for oil spills clean-up.