INFLUENCE OF TEMPERATURE ON THE RECOVERY OF OILS SPILLED IN SEAWATER USING HYDROPHOBIZED POST-CONSUMER POLYURETHANE FOAMS

Abstract

Although economically vital, whether in cold Scandinavian or warm Caribbean waters, offshore oil exploration accounts for oil spills at sea. One of the mechanisms used for recovering spilled oil consists of using porous materials with high sorption capacity in the cleanup process. Post-consumer polyurethane foams (PC-PUFs) are highly porous polymers typically disposed by consumers in Brazilian cities. In this work, PC-PUFs obtained from discarded mattresses were modified superficially to promote hydrophobization and increase their selectivity for oils over water. The characterization showed foams with well-defined macro pores. Surfaces of MoS2-modified foams (MoS2-PC) showed an increase in seawater penetration rejection and oil attraction when compared to unmodified foams (Un-PC). Sorption tests simulating oil spillage at 1 °C, 12 °C, and 23 °C were conducted to verify the influence of temperature on oil recovery by PC-PUFs. Tests on the seawater-diesel system showed that diesel, a low-viscosity oil with slight viscosity variation with temperature reduction, penetrated both Un-PC and MoS2-PC foams easily, making the modifications on MoS2-PC irrelevant. In the seawater-S46 lubricant system, which had a more viscous oil and presented a substantial variation in viscosity with temperature reduction, there was greater difficulty in penetrating the Un-PC foam when compared to MoS2-PC, showing that the modifications were responsible for the increase in the recovery of more viscous oils spilled in seawater at different temperatures.