An industrializable recovery technology for marine oil spill based on solar-thermal adsorption material

Abstract

Photothermal oil-absorbing materials offer significant benefits for marine oil spill treatment thanks to their high efficiency, environmental friendliness, and reusability. However, expensive treatment costs and a fragmented process flow have restricted their large-scale practical application. To address these issues and facilitate the transition of photothermal oil-absorbing materials to real-world use, an integrated, low-cost, and high-efficiency process was proposed for marine oil spill cleanup. This integrated process comprises three key components, i.e., preparation of photothermal adsorption materials, photothermal adsorption of oil spills, and regeneration-reuse of photothermal materials. A graphene-coated melamine sponge (RGOMS) with minimized cost was prepared. Oil spill recovery experiments were then carried out using the prepared material. RGOMS exhibits superior photothermal-adsorption capacity for crude oil, adsorbing 74.69 times its own mass in 19 min, The oil-laden RGOMS was finally underwent an inexpensive regeneration method, i.e., “n-stage staggered-flow cleaning” strategy to enhance cleaning efficiency (99.47 %) and further reduce costs (54.55 %). This integrated oil spill cleanup process demonstrates unique advantages such as high efficiency and low cost, providing a model and guidance for the practical application of photothermal oil-absorbing materials.