Assessment of Arundo donax Fibers for Oil Spill Recovery Applications
1
Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Edificio 6, 90128 Palermo, Italy
2
Department of Engineering, University of Messina, Contrada di Dio, Sant’Agata, 98166 Messina, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Fibers 2019, 7(9), 75; https://doi.org/10.3390/fib7090075
Received: 19 July 2019 / Revised: 13 August 2019 / Accepted: 16 August 2019 / Published: 21 August 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Fibers)
In the last years, natural fibers are increasingly investigated as an oil recovery system in order to overcome the oil spillage phenomena, thus preserving environment and aquatic life. In particular, lignocellulose-based fibers have recently been employed with promising results. In such a context, the aim of this paper is to assess the oil sorption capability of natural fibers extracted from the stem of the giant reed Arundo donax L., a perennial rhizomatous grass belonging to the Poaceae family that grows naturally all around the world thanks to its ability to tolerate different climatic conditions. Sorption tests in several pollutants and water as a reference were carried out. The fibers have absorption capacities that are about five to six times their weight. Depending on the high absorption kinetics, possible applicative interests can be identified. Eventually, depending on the fiber size, adsorption properties were related to the microstructure and morphology of Arundo donax fibers.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
natural fibers; Arundo donax; oil recovery; sorption capacity; morphology
▼
Show Figures
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Fiore, V.; Piperopoulos, E.; Calabrese, L. Assessment of Arundo donax Fibers for Oil Spill Recovery Applications. Fibers 2019, 7, 75.
Show more citation formats
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.