Novel Collection Equipment Loaded with Superhydrophobic Sponge for Continuous Oil/Water Separation from Offshore Environments

Abstract

Currently, frequent oil spill accidents caused by transportation, storage, and usage may lead to extensive damage to marine ecosystems. Effective methods for oil spillage recovery from offshore environments are still urgently in demand. A superhydrophobic sponge (MS@PVC@SiO2) was obtained via a facile two-step method for rapid oil adsorption, and a piece of novel collection equipment loaded with MS@PVC@SiO2 was developed for in situ continuous oil/seawater separation. The results showed that MS@PVC@SiO2 exhibits excellent water repellence, compressibility, and durability. Furthermore, the obtained MS@PVC@SiO2 shows high diesel oil adsorption capacity (32 g/g), and excellent recyclability (up to 200 times). The collection equipment demonstrates highly selective oil adsorption capacity and good stability in real seawater. The maximum possible recovery capacity of collection equipment was 557.784 L/h with 98% efficiency, which was much higher than that of commercial disc oil collectors (119.8 L/h). The recovery performance was effectively improved by introducing MS@PVC@SiO2, due to its large specific area and enough storage space. Moreover, even after continuous operation for 58 h in seawater, the collection equipment remained at a high recovery capacity. The results indicate that both MS@PVC@SiO2 and the collection equipment have great application perspectives in practical marine oil spillage recovery.