Treatment of Water Contaminated by Ship Oil: Study of Adsorption in a Fixed-Bed Column

Aquatic macrophytes like Salvinia sp. have rapid proliferation and a great capacity for ecological adaptation. In addition to these characteristics, this study points to their ability to adsorb contaminants such as dyes, metals, and oils. This work aims, through an adsorption study, to propose an alternative treatment using chemically modified Salvinia sp. (SOH) biomass to remove oil from water. Batch adsorption experiments were performed to observe the effects of concentration, pH, time, temperature, desorption, and reuse of the biomass. The adsorption mechanisms, performance, kinetics, isotherm, thermodynamics, and reusability of biomass were evaluated. Both adsorbents were well-defined by the Freundlich model isotherm. According to the results obtained, the qmax was 898.0 mg g−1 for SOH in oil-in-salt water emulsion in 15 min and 930.59 mg g−1 for Salvinia sp. in natura (SS) in the oil-in-water emulsion. In the fixed-bed column adsorption, the adsorption capacity was 2.99 g g−1 for SS and 3.49 g g−1 for SOH, and the saturation capacity was 42.89 g g−1 SS and 42.99 g g−1 SOH. According to the adsorption models, the Bohart–Adams model best fits the experimental data of this study. The SOH adsorbed oil recovery test was successful, with 100% oil recovery.