CELLULOSE AND LIGNIN FIBERS MEDIATED REMOVAL OF THE OIL SPILL POLLUTION

Vegetal matter like hemp wastes, peat and sawdust have fibrous and porous morphology if they are properly shredded as observed in SEM images. Polarized light microscopy has been used to study the crystalline structure of biomass and FTIR spectroscopy evidences their specific chemical bonds. Hemp wastes reveal porous husk remains of about 50 – 500 μm abundant in lignin and cellulose fibers lint having length of about 5 – 50 μm. Shredded peat reveal finer cellulose fibrous formation of about 50 μm length and lignin shell like particles of about 20 – 200 μm. Saw dust contains mainly cellulose fibers grouped in flake particles of about 700 μm with fringed edges. These samples were subjected to diesel and oil spills. The gravimetric test indicates the best specific absorption for diesel of 1.76 g/g obtained by sawdust and the lower value of 1.48 g/g was measured for hemp waste. The oil spill was better absorbed by sawdust having a specific absorption of 2.28 g/g and the weaker absorption was measured for hemp wastes around 1.66 g/g. The lower values measured for peat are caused by the presence of quartz particles as forest soil impurity.