Cost effective and practically viable oil spillage mitigation: Comprehensive study with biochar

Highlights: • Biochar preparation from rice husk and saw dust • Selective Crude oil adsorption from biochar in oil/water biphasic mixture • Characterization of Biochar by various analytical techniques • Practical viability of biochar in oil spill cleanup has been simulated in realistic conditions. - Abstract: Biochar is carbonaceous mass that is produced from pyrolysis or gasification of biomass. It is so far majorly explored for soil remediation application, but recently it has attracted a lot of interest because of its unexplored applications in the area of adsorption. In this work, detailed study on biochars produced from two different feeds (rice husk and saw dust), at two different temperatures (450 and 550 °C) and two different rates (fast and slow) of pyrolysis are discussed for oil spill mitigation. Biochar is characterized in detail by various techniques such as FTIR, ¹³C CPMAS, FESEM, RAMAN, TGA to determine the structural composition and observe the extent of pyrolysis. Tests to assess the performance of produced biochars as sorbents for oil spill mitigation have been demonstrated. The as produced biochars selectively absorbed crude oil from oil/water biphasic mixtures in various capacities.