HEATING AND REGENERATION IN MICROWAVE OF THE ADSORBENT MATERIALS USED FOR NEUTRALIZATION OF CRUDE OIL AND OIL STAINS

Abstract

Microwave heating has unique advantages over convectional heating methods, including rapid heating and the selective heating of objects. This work has studied two applications of microwave heating in the field of the environment: regeneration of adsorbent materials and activation of adsorbent materials used together with different grains of sand in order to neutralize the stains from crude oil and oil. Thermal behavior during microwave heating of the adsorbent materials used in the experiments,when are dried or saturated with the selected adsorbents has been studied to evaluate the potential for using microwave heating for adsorbent regeneration. Powerful adsorbents of crude oil and various oils in microwaves showed a higher heating rate when were dried. The adsorbents with absorption in microwaves, with low absorbtion, showed faster heating speeds when where saturated with polar components. The short activation time and process simplicity demonstrate that microwave activation of adsorbent materials is a promising approach for turning them into materials with a high crude oil and oils adsorption capacity.