Year: 2026 | Month: June | Volume 13 | Issue 1
Comparative Study of Natural Fibres as Sustainable Oil Sorbents: Recent Developments in Modification Techniques and Oil Absorption Performance
Deb Prasad Ray1*
Santanu Basak1
Kartick K. Samanta1
Manisha Jagadale1
Naveen Jose1
Sanjoy Debnath1
D.B. Shakyawar1
Sudipta Bhowmick2
Krishanu Adhikary2 and Rachayetri Mitra3
DOI:10.30954/2347-9655.01.2026.14
Abstract :
living organisms and economy. Industry has invoked many operating and maintenance procedures to reduce accidents that lead to spills. The rate of spillage has decreased in the past 10 years, even with increased oil production, transportation, and consumption. Despite this, spill experts estimate that 30%–50% of oil spills are either directly or indirectly caused by human error, with 20%–40% of all spills caused by equipment failure or malfunction. Emerging spill risks include increased maritime activity in the Arctic, deepwater exploration and development, and the rapid expansion of rail transport of crude oil. In the present work, an attempt is made to provide an efficient, easily deployable method of cleaning up oil spills and recovering of the oil. Driven by the requirement to replace the conventional synthetic fibres to meet this cause, sustainable eco-friendly alternatives are being developed. Natural fibres and by-products of agricultural processes have emerged as promising candidates, due to the low cost, renewability, abundance, biodegradability and suitable absorption characteristics. This study explores the development of high-value oil-absorbing materials from low-cost natural fibres, focusing on jute, banana, okra and mesta, with kapok chestnut-shell fibres, coconut-derived fibres, palm oil fibres, kenaf fibres, and other lignocellulosic agricultural residues. The raw fibres were subjected to several surface modifications procedures like - alkali scouring, bleaching, silane treatment, TEOS-based silica deposition, acetylation and DTES grafting, and the change on their sorption characteristics were analysed. It could be concluded that porosity, fibre morphology, chemical composition, arrangement of surface waxes, strongly influence their oil and water absorption characteristics.
Highlights
- Natural fibres offer sustainable alternatives to synthetic oil sorbents.
- Surface modification improves hydrophobicity, oleophilicity, and oil uptake.
- Kapok and cotton demonstrate superior oil sorption performance.
- Porosity, morphology, waxes, and wettability govern sorption behaviour.
- Greener modifications enable reusable, scalable, biodegradable oil sorbents.
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