Adsorption of Crude Oil in Aqueous Medium Using Different Cultivars of Cassava Peels as Biosorbent

Adsorption of crude oil in an aqueous medium using different cultivars of Cassava Peels was investigated. The effect of particle size, dosage, initial concentration, and contact time of dried Cassava Peels on the degradation of crude oil in an aqueous solution was studied. It was established that as the particle size of Cassava Peels increases, the adsorption increases, and vice versa. The result showed that Cassava Peels with a particle size of 800μm have the optimal amount of crude oil adsorbed thus implying that a bigger particle size is required for effective adsorption of crude oil in an aqueous solution. Adsorption of crude oil increased as the dosage of the biosorbent increased until equilibrium was achieved. Adsorption of crude oil in solution was established to increase with a decrease in initial crude concentration. The effect of contact time showed that crude oil adsorption increased rapidly within the first 10mins, thereafter, equilibrium was achieved in a contact time of 120mins. The experimental data fitted well into Freundlich and Temkin Isotherm. The maximum adsorption capacity obtained for the two optimal cultivars was 714mg/g and 2000mg/g respectively. The values of the adsorption intensity for Sample A (n = 1.478) and Sample C (n = 1.125) were greater than 1 indicating that the adsorption of crude oil using Sample A and C is more of chemisorption than only physical adsorption. The result from this study showed that there was the resultant regrowth in the population of hydrocarbon-degrading microbes after 24hrs which indicates that the crude oil environment was utilized by these microorganisms after adsorption of the crude oil using the sorbents from Cassava Peels. This study has shown that Cassava Peels (inactivated) can effectively be used to adsorb crude oil in polluted water.