A novel copper modified microcrystalline cellulose (Cu-MCC) for treatment of crude oil-contaminated water

In this study, a novel impregnation method was adopted by adding Cu 2+ to microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) powder, producing a composite material (Cu-MCC) that was used as a sorbent to treat water contaminated by crude oil. The produced Cu-MCC was examined using a variety of characterization techniques. With the application of central composite design (CCD) for testing the influenced parameters, the experimental and predicted oil sorption capacity (OSC) values were 10.61 and 9.86 mg/g, respectively at the optimal condition of initial concentration (120 mg/100 mL), sorbent dosage (80 mg) and reaction time of 78 mins. This indicates that the predicted values from the model agree closely with the experimental values, with only a small error of 0.75. The adsorption data were simulated using five different versions of the linearized Langmuir equations along with the Freundlich and Temkin adsorption isotherms . Langmuir-2, which denotes a monolayer sorption process best describes the equilibrium adsorption data giving maximum sorption capacity of 6.48 mg/g with pseudo-second order model as the best model for the kinetics data. The findings show that Cu-MCC is very promising as an effective material for cleaning up water contaminated from crude oil. • A novel copper modified microcrystalline cellulose was developed in a powder form. • This new composite material (Cu-MCC) is proposed to treat water contaminated by crude oil. • Linearized Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin adsorption isotherms were investigated. • Pseudo-second order is the best model to represent the kinetics data in this study. • The experimental and predicted oil sorption capacities were 10.61 and 9.86 mg/g, respectively.