Availability of barley straw application on oil spill clean up

Oil spills are a global concern due to the environmental and economical impact. Various commercial systems have been developed to control these spills, including the use of fibers as sorbents. However, most sorbents end up in landfills or in cineration after single use. These options either produce another source of pollution or increase the oil recovery cost. Plant biomass is renewable resource that can be converted into useful materials and energy. Barley straw, an agricultural waste, was used as sorbent material. The present study examines the absorption capacity of raw barley straw for different petroleum products and water pick up. The investigate revealed that the capacity of fibers to remove crude oil from sea water was related to the surface properties of the fibers, concentration of the oil, size of the fiber, amount of the fibers, as well as the temperature of the crude oil. Cyclic sorption /desorption studies indicated that a simple squeezing operation was enough to remove most of the oil sorbed and that recycling was feasible.