ABSTRACT

Optimizing Plant Cellulose for Cost-Effective and Environmentally Benign Oil Spill Mitigation Sanjana Gurram; My-Nga Ingram, Scott Halander; Westview High School. Over the past 50 years, approximately 1.7 billion gallons of oil have been spilled into bodies of water globally. Currently, there is a lack of fast-acting solutions to this issue. As a result, there is often a delay to enact mitigation efforts, which results in exponentially higher costs and more adverse impacts on fragile aquatic ecosystems. This research hypothesizes that the chemical and physical modification of plant cellulose will result in a crystalline, hydrophobic substance that selectively absorbs hydrocarbons, the major constituents of industrial oil, therefore providing a novel solution to this issue. Cotton cellulose was subjected to acid hydrolysis and dried the result to create a light, solid substance that is highly oil absorbent and hydrophobic, as evidenced by the heightened oil absorption and insignificant water absorption. The resulting substance is very efficient, as its hydrophobicity is optimal for selective oil absorption in bodies of water. Also, this substance’s derivation is very low in cost, and it can be produced in a large sheet form that can be quickly implemented in the area of a spill. Additionally, it is entirely composed of EPA-approved chemicals, mostly cellulose, which is very abundant and biologically stable. Because of its environmentally benign chemical composition, low cost, and facile derivation procedure, this substance can be easily mass-produced and implemented as a fast-acting and environmentally benign method of oil spill mitigation.