The Potential Use of Natural Clinoptilolite Zeolite for Crude Oil Spill Removal from Sea Water

Abstract

Accidental spillage or drainage from land of crude oil to the marine environment will potentially cause serious damage to the environment and marine life. Many efforts have been focused on the use of most efficient adsorbent to remove the oil and/or oil-decomposing agent from the water. The current study was aimed at to evaluate the most abundantly-available natural zeolite dominated by clinoptilolite mineral and pronounced molecular sieve characteristics as crude oil spill removal in sea water. Bayah-originated zeolite was characterized by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, pore distribution and average size, gas sorption capacity, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). A laboratory experiments were conducted by reacting a 100-mesh zeolite with and without microbial enrichment to crude oil in a 250 mL sea water (3.7% NaCl and pH 6.7) jar at different oil/zeolite ratios, <i> i.e. </i> 50%, 100%, 200%, and 400% (v/w) with three replicates. Observations were made on the stability of zeolite-oil mixture for one week, the weight of zeolite mixed with oil, the oil adsorbed by the zeolite, and free oil after 24-hrs settling. The results indicate that zeolite has highly potential as crude oil adsorbent and the highest oil sorption obtained at zeolite/oil ratio of 1:1 with 86.3% oil adsorbed or 0.87 mL oil per gram zeolite. Enrichment of zeolite with <i> Bacillus subtilis </i> improved the adsorbed oil by the mineral.