Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal H3G 1M8, Canada.
Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal H3G 1M8, Canada.
Sci Total Environ. 2021 Nov 25;797:149234. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149234. Epub 2021 Jul 22.
Marine oil spills are often reported as a result of activities associated with oil exploration, production and transportation. The spilled oil may reach the shoreline, and then the stranded oil can persist for a long time, exerting many negative effects on coastal ecosystems. Conventional shoreline cleanup methods cannot effectively remove the oil residues from affected areas and are very expensive. Therefore, the use of alginate hydrogel coatings was proposed as a new initiative for emergent shoreline oiling prevention. The alginate hydrogel-coated gravels showed high surface roughness, as well as remarkable water wetting and low-oil-adhesion properties. There was a low oil adhesion on the coated gravels in the continuous test with oil/water emulsion flow, indicating the excellent oil-repellent properties of the coated substrate. The results of batch oil-repellent tests showed that independent of the kind or weathering degree of the oil used, oil can be easily washed out from the coated gravels. The coated gravels had good environmental stability and the slightly partial de-crosslinking of alginate structure would not reduce the oil repellence performance. Moreover, the performance of the alginate hydrogel-coated gravel was further proved with a laboratory shoreline tank simulator, in which more stranded oil floated to the water surface and less oil remained on gravels and entered into subsurface. This proposed oiling prevention method can be used not only for shorelines but also for coastal piers, seaports, and solid manmade shorelines. The coating material is derived from the biomass in the ocean and can be degraded under natural conditions. This study may provide a unique direction for the future development of green oil spill control strategy.
海洋溢油通常是石油勘探、生产和运输活动的结果。溢油可能会到达海岸线，然后搁浅的油污可能会持续很长时间，对沿海生态系统产生许多负面影响。传统的海岸线清理方法无法有效地去除受影响区域的油污残留物，而且非常昂贵。因此，提出了使用藻酸盐水凝胶涂层作为新的紧急海岸线溢油预防措施。藻酸盐水凝胶涂层砾石具有高表面粗糙度以及显著的亲水性和低油附着性。在连续的油水乳液流动测试中，涂层砾石上的油附着量很低，这表明涂层基底具有优异的疏油性。批量疏油测试的结果表明，无论使用的油的种类或风化程度如何，都可以很容易地从涂层砾石中洗出油。涂层砾石具有良好的环境稳定性，藻酸盐结构的轻微部分交联不会降低疏油性。此外，实验室岸线罐模拟器进一步证明了藻酸盐水凝胶涂层砾石的性能，其中更多的浮油漂浮到水面上，更少的油残留在砾石上并进入地下。这种提出的防溢油方法不仅可用于海岸线，还可用于沿海码头、海港和人造固体海岸线。涂层材料来自海洋中的生物质，可在自然条件下降解。这项研究可能为未来绿色溢油控制策略的发展提供独特的方向。
