The adsorption potentials of plantain peel for oil spill clean up

The production and transportation of crude oil has resulted in serious environmental pollution via oil spillage, generating a great burden to humanity. This spillage has induced different kinds of pollution that have serious adverse effects on man, animals and plants. These adverse impacts to the ecosystems and the long-term environmental pollution necessitated an urgent need to develop a wide range of material for clean-up of oil from affected areas. The oil producing companies and state government have not done enough to effect immediate oil spill remediation after an oil spillage has occurred, and it may be due to technology, economic cost or outright negligence. The methods and developed sorbents have not been inadequate in meeting up with the required efficacy of oil spill removal. Hence, the deployment of certain agro wastes that is biodegradable and eco-friendly (green adsorbent) becomes a `good option in oil spill remedy. The important contribution of this research to existing knowledge includes modifying the undervalued and neglected agricultural waste residues to valuable sorbents for oil spill clean-up that have the potential of providing economic incentives. Similarly, it substantiated the fact that plantain plantain peel has well documented capacity for oil sorption and the lack of dimensional stability due to associated hydroxyl functionality was corrected by modification. The adsorbent was subjected to sample preparation by washing, sun dried and crushed to a specific size. It was then oven dried at 350 o C and allowed to cool and subjected to FTIR analysis. It was subjected to modification by a reaction with acetic anhydride with sulpuric acid as catalyst. The modified adsorbent was subjected to crude oil recovery efficiency test.  Sample characterization results showed moisture content of 1.370%, ash content of 14.260% and hausner ratio of 1.209. IR result indicated absence of spectra bands at 1740 -1745 cm-1and 1020 -1040 cm-1. The result of the oil removal efficiency was subjected to kinetic models (pseudo-first order, PFO, pseudo-second order, PSO, intraparticle diffusion, IPD, and film diffusion, FD). Correlation value, R2 obtained for PSO and FD were close to unity, an indication that the plantain peel as an adsorbent was inclined to PSO kinetics with adsorption outlook to film diffusion than the IPD. The high value of R2 (0.9851 for the pseudo second order, PSO and 0.9556 for the film diffusion, FD) obtained in the adsorption kinetics justifies the potency of plantain peel as a sorbent in oil spill remediation. A recommendation for further research on more efficient methods to enhance the oil adsorption capacity of the modified material should be explored and encouraged. This work is also an indispensable reference and an essential reading for everyone concerned with oil spill cleanup in mangroves and wetlands, providing strategies for the conversion of agricultural wastes to effective oil spill sorbents.