PERFORMANCE OF AMAZONIAN BIOSORBENTS IN THE SEPARATION PROCESS OF EMULSIFIED OIL WITH RIO NEGRO WATER

Currently, one of the most serious environmental problems society is facing is water contamination by oil spills. The use of sorbents from agricultural residues has been considered a very promising approach for the effective treatment of oil contaminated water. Therefore, this work investigates the use of biosorbents obtained from cupuaçu shell (Bio-CP) and sacha inchi shell (Bio-SI) in the oil removal process. The characterization of adsorbents was carried out by FTIR, XRF, and TGA. Adsorption tests were carried out in a finite bath using 0.1 g of biosorbent and diesel/Rio Negro water emulsions at 400 mg.L-1 in a contact time of 60 minutes. The results show that Bio-CP has a higher oil adsorption capacity (190.8 mg.g-1) compared to Bio-SI (174.93 mg.g-1), and better oil removal, 95.4%, if compared to 87.47% for Bio-SI. The results indicate that cupuaçu and sacha inchi shells can be effective in the production of biosorbents to remove diesel from contaminated water.