Rice Husk Ash for Oil Spill Cleanup

Abstract

In this work, we report rice husk ash prepared via a thermal treatment process used as oil sorbents for oil spill cleanup. The oil sorbent with highly porous structures shows a crude oil sorption capacity of 15 g/g. The rice husk ash was studied on the basis of phase composition, microstructure and morphology using X-ray diffraction analysis, FTIR spectrometry and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results of the SEM studies strongly indicate that thermal treatment is a suitable method to improve structure of husk particles regarding porosity compared to virgin samples.