Natural adsorbent based on sawdust for removing impurities in waste lubricants

Abstract Sawdust was expected to remove impurities in waste lubricant, and was modified with sodium hydroxide and triethanolamine, which can ameliorate its surface properties and improve its adsorption capacity. The increase of hydroxyl groups, the decrease of carbonyl groups and grafting new azyl after modification were beneficial for the adsorption of impurities. The surface area of modified sawdust is 0.969 m 2  g −1 , which is nearly 1.39 times as much as raw sawdust. The point of zero charge for modified sawdust decreased from 6.75 to 5.68 while the crystallinity of modified sawdust increased from 40.35 to 56.16. This research discovered that compared with raw sawdust and filter paper, modified sawdust possessed superior adsorption performances. The removal percentages for Si, Al, Fe, Cu was enhanced from 2.54%, 20.34%, 16.55%, 0.26% to 15.37%, 21.99%, 45.37%, 4.88%, respectively, while that for oxidation, aromatics, sulphation, soot and water was improved by 4.33, 4.69, 0.76, 1.20, 1.28 times at 80 °C with 1000 rpm for 12 h. The research has also explored the optimum adsorption conditions (adsorption temperature, adsorption time and rotation rate). The modified sawdust showed a stable adsorption capacity for impurities under different adsorption conditions.