Natural Chitosan as an Adsorbent for Oil Removal from Wastewater: A Comparative Study with Natural Based Adsorbents

The use of chitosan as an adsorbent for the removal of oil from oil-in-water emulsion has been investigated in this study. Chitosan is a promising material with various applications in adsorption and is effective in removing several types of pollutants, including vegetable oil. As oil pollution continues to cause significant harm to the environment, adsorption has emerged as a viable method for remediation, and this study seeks to explore its potential in removing oil from wastewater. A series of adsorption experiments were conducted on artificially made oil-in-water emulsions, using chitosan flakes as the adsorbent and cooking vegetable oil as the adsorbate. The study investigated various parameters affecting the sorption capacity, including pH, contact time, oil concentration, adsorbent dose, agitation speed, and temperature. Untreated and unmodified chitosan flakes were used as adsorbents, and the results showed that oil removal efficiencies of up to 80-90% could be achieved by varying individual parameters. Significantly, the peak values were observed individually at 50°C, 30 min of contact time, 0.005 g of adsorbent per 100 mL of emulsion, 0.8% of initial oil concentration, 150 RPM of agitation speed, and a solution pH of 6.02. The potential for improving oil removal with modified chitosan was also discussed, along with an analysis of parameter interaction. The findings suggest that chitosan has significant potential as an adsorbent for oil removal from wastewater and that further research into modifications and optimization of parameters could lead to even greater efficiency in oil removal. Overall, thisstudy contributesto the growing body ofresearch on environmentally friendly and sustainable methods for the bioremediation of oil pollution.