Assessment of Crude Oil Mopping Efficiency of Ground Chicken Feathers: Kinetic and Adsorption Isotherm Studies

Aims: To determine and compare the equilibrium adsorption capacity and adsorption process of crude oil onto ground chicken feathers and mixture of crude oil on water onto ground chicken feathers with that of a conventional synthetic sorbent mat determined under the same experimental condition as ground chicken feathers.

Study Design: The study was designed to use ground chicken feathers and a conventional synthetic sorbent mat to mop crude oil and mixture of crude oil on water so as to assess the effectiveness of ground chicken feathers as an oil spill sorbent by comparing its mopping profile with that of a standard; a conventional synthetic sorbent mat.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Chemistry Laboratory, Federal College of Education (Technical), Asaba, Delta State, Nigeria, between September – October, 2010.

Methodology: The adsorption of crude oil onto ground chicken feathers/synthetic sorbent mat was carried out in two stages. The first stage of the study involves kinetic study of the adsorption process to determine the equilibrium adsorption capacity (qe) of crude oil onto ground chicken feathers and the standard, and the equilibration time of the adsorption process. The second stage of the study involves verification of the adsorption process using adsorption isotherms of Langmuir, Freundlich, Elovich, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich. To determine the mopping profile of crude oil on water onto ground chickens and synthetic sorbent, the experiment was repeat with mixture of crude oil on water. The experiment was carried out at room temperature; 28°C.

Results: The equilibrium adsorption capacity of crude oil onto ground chicken feathers/synthetic sorbent obtained from the kinetic study of the adsorption of crude oil onto ground chicken feathers/synthetic sorbent are 13.60 g/g at equilibration time of 80 minutes and 11.44 g/g at 60 minutes respectively. The linearized form Ceqe versus Ce of Langmuir isotherm model fitted the experimental data with a coefficient of determination r2 of 0.999 for both sorbents, indicating that the Langmuir isotherm can describe the adsorption of crude oil onto ground chicken feathers sand synthetic sorbent. The moderate (less than 10%) average percentage error value (APE %) of 4.6 and 4.8 obtained for ground chicken feathers and synthetic sorbent in the verification of the validity of the Langmuir model in describing the experimental data, confirms the validity of the Langmuir isotherm in describing the experimental data. The adsorption isotherm model shows that one molecule of crude oil is adsorbed on a layer of ground chicken feathers/synthetic and there is no interaction between the adsorbed molecules of crude oil. The intensity of adsorption of ground chickens feather and the conventional synthetic sorbent used as the standard are both 1.00 indicating that ground chicken feathers compared well with the standard in terms of affinity for crude oil and adsorption of crude oil. 14.70 g/g was obtained as the maximum equilibrium adsorption capacity qm of the adsorption of crude oil onto ground chicken feathers, while 11.11 g/g was obtained for the adsorption of crude oil onto conventional synthetic sorbent. The result suggests that ground chicken feathers has larger surface area than the standard and is a better sorbent than the standard. The dimensionless separation factor equilibrium parameter KR Of 0.0011 for both sorbents shows that the adsorption of crude oil onto ground chicken feathers and synthetic sorbent are favourable. About 12.00 g/g and 9.00 g/g of the adsorbed oil can be recovered from ground chicken feathers and conventional synthetic sorbent respectively. This make ground chicken feathers a better sorbent when oil recovery is required. The amount of water adsorbed together with crude oil on water was negligible, which means that both sorbents can be used to mop crude oil spill on land and on water.

Conclusion: The result of the study shows that ground chicken feather adsorbed more crude oil per unit mass than the conventional synthetic sorbent used as the standard in this study. Ground chicken feathers are an efficient natural sorbent that can be used to mop crude oil spill on land and water, and it is efficient for oil recovery.