Study on the use of banana peels for oil spill removal

Abstract Nowadays, oil spill is one of the most serious pollutants that have negative effects on the ecosystem and marine life. Environmentalists face major challenges in the treatment of spills and in developing an alternative product with low cost. Among all different sorbents, agriculture waste is preferred as an oil cleanup technology due to its biodegradation and buoyancy. This study investigates the oil sorption capacity of crude and gas oils, using banana peel as a substitutional material from local fruit wastes. The research detected that the capacity of this sorbent to clean up crude oil from produced water toward different factors is associated with surface characteristics, oil type, oil film thickness, sorption time, temperature, in addition to the salinity of crude oil. Analytical techniques of banana peel, such as microstructure and morphology using FTIR spectrometry and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) are also studied. Banana peel is tested using gas oil, 1- and 7-day weathered Almein crude oil. The results explain that the best conditions were established at 0.3625 mm particle size and temperature at 25 °C for 15 min.