Wheat Bran: An Unlikely Ally Against Oil Spills

Scientists in China have found that wheat bran could be useful to separate crude oil from water.

AsianScientist (Nov. 16, 2018) – Scientists in China have turned wheat bran into oil-soaking sponges that can separate oil from water and prevent damage to natural ecosystems. Their findings are published in Materials Chemistry Frontiers.

Accidents arising from oil spills cause serious ecological problems every year. Various approaches to mitigating oil spills have been developed, including in situ burning, mechanical skimming and dispersant-aided diffusion.

Among the existing methods, physical adsorption of oil by porous materials is a simple and efficient technique. However, this method is ineffective for viscous oil, like crude oil, which exhibits a yoghurt-like consistency at room temperature.

In this study, a team led by Professor Ma Pengcheng at the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed an oil gelator using biodegradable wheat bran as a starting material. The gelator can selectively congeal oil spills into floating gels on the water surface, thus preventing the oil film from spreading and making the spilt oil easy to collect.

The researchers further revealed that wheat bran contains lipophilic parts that bind oil. On the other hand, the hydrophilic component in wheat bran, like the hydroxyl groups on its surface, form hydrogen bonds among the bran particles as well as with water molecules. This prevents the adsorbed oil from dispersing again across the water surface.

The researchers called the mechanism aggregation-induced gelation in macro-scale, noting that the synergy of the above two properties made wheat bran ideal for dealing with oil spills.


The article can be found at: Lv et al. (2018) Bio-based Oil Gelling Agent for Effective Removal of Oil Spills From the Surface of Water.

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Source: Chinese Academy of Sciences; Photo: Pexels.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.

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