Comparison of nonwoven fabrics in terms of usefulness for oil spill combat

The petroleum substances (oil) spilled on the hard surface can be easily neutralized and collected by using powdery or granular sorbents. We are dealing with more difficult situation when oil spill appears on the soft ground or on the surface of the water. Extremely difficult is removing the oil from body of water polluted by dispersed one. In such cases useful are various balls, sleeves and mats filled by nonwovens. It is important to identify a material, which strongly absorbs different type of oil in a wide temperature range. At the same time, such material should have physical properties allowing easy and rapid contact with the spilled oil and then its removal from the environment. This paper provides an overview of impregnability of nonwoven fabrics made from two materials – polypropylene and cotton. The impregnability was tested against the water and the used lubricate oil. The tests were carried out by using experimental device constructed by members of the student’s scientific society at Faculty of Marine Engineering (Gdynia Maritime University). Principle of construction of testing device takes into account aspect of placing the sorbent in the package as well as possibility of repeating the experiment in precisely defined measurement conditions. Among tested materials, the best in terms of oil sorptivity proved to be polypropylene. The same material was the least absorbing water. It can therefore be assumed that this material is the most suitable for removing oil from the polluted water.