Development of biosorbent from orange peel and fish skin waste for usage in petroleum industry

In the present work biowaste orange peels and fish collagen-derived hydrophilic super-absorbent was synthesized using polyvinyl alcohol and methacrylic acid, and a hybrid natural pectin-collagen backbone. After optimization of different reaction parameters w.r.t. Percentage grafting, the equilibrium water removal capacity of the smart polymer in three different petroleum fraction-water emulsions: petrol-water, diesel-water, and petroleum ether-water was studied and optimized to get the maximum water absorption. The higher equilibrium water uptake capacity was found in the petrol-water emulsion (1.6740 g/g) followed by diesel-water (1.5126 g/g) and petroleum ether-water emulsions (1.3537 g/g). All petroleum fraction-water emulsions, including petrol-water (n = 0.3566), diesel-water (n = 0.3375), and petroleum ether-water (n = 0.3678), were able to allow water to penetrate the 3-D network of the smart polymer through a Fickian diffusion mechanism. The pseudo swelling kinetic model showed that the experimental results were consistent order with theoretical equilibrium water uptake values: 1.9548 g/g (petrol-water), 1.7393 g/g (diesel-water) and 1.6149 g/g (petroleum ether-water) along with swelling rate constant ks = 8.234 × 10⁻³ g/g min (diesel-water), ks = 7.52 × 10⁻³ g/g min (petrol-water) and ks = 6.64 × 10⁻³ g/g min (petroleum ether-water). Further the candidate polymer exhibited the salt resistant water uptake behaviour w.r.t. 1.0, 5.0, 10.0 and 15.0 % NaCl concentration and thus, such materials are of great importance in membrane technology. The findings demonstrated that biowaste superabsorbent has a great potential as an environment friendly, cost-effective and “waste to wealth” for removing water from various petroleum fractions in petroleum industries.