School of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Tehran, P. O. Box: 11365/4563, Tehran, Iran.
Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran.
Mar Pollut Bull. 2018 Apr;129(2):438-447. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.10.012. Epub 2017 Oct 12.
Oil spills are the most important threat to the sea ecosystem. The present study is an attempt to investigate the effects of sol-gel parameters on seawater decontamination from crude oil by use of flexible silica aerogel. To this goal, methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS) based silica aerogels were prepared by two-step acid-base catalyzed sol-gel process, involving ambient pressure drying (APD) method. To investigate the effects of sol-gel parameters, the aerogels were prepared under two different acidic and basic pH values (i.e. 4 and 8) and varied ethanol/MTMS molar ratios from 5 to 15. The adsorption capacity of the prepared aerogels was evaluated for two heavy and light commercial crude oils under multiple adsorption-desorption cycles. To reduce process time, desorption cycles were carried out by using roll milling for the first time. At optimum condition, silica aerogels are able to uptake heavy and light crude oils with the order of 16.7 and 13.7, respectively.
溢油是海洋生态系统面临的最重要威胁之一。本研究试图通过使用柔性二氧化硅气凝胶来研究溶胶-凝胶参数对海水除原油污染的影响。为此，采用两步酸碱催化溶胶-凝胶法，通过常压干燥（APD）法，制备了基于甲基三甲氧基硅烷（MTMS）的二氧化硅气凝胶。为了研究溶胶-凝胶参数的影响，在两种不同的酸性和碱性 pH 值（即 4 和 8）和变化的乙醇/MTMS 摩尔比（5 至 15）下制备了气凝胶。在多次吸附-解吸循环中，评估了所制备的气凝胶对两种重质和轻质商业原油的吸附能力。为了缩短处理时间，首次使用滚磨法进行解吸循环。在最佳条件下，二氧化硅气凝胶对重质和轻质原油的吸附量分别为 16.7 和 13.7。
