ASSESSMENT OF THE ADSORBENT CAPACITY OF SAWDUST BRIQUETTE IN TREATING CRUDE OIL CONTAMINATED WATER

Authors

  • B. D. Odugbose Department of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, College of Engineering and Environmental Studies (CEES), Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ibogun Campus, P. M. B. 5026, Ifo, Ogun State, Nigeria. Author
  • O. I. Dada Department of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, College of Engineering and Environmental Studies (CEES), Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ibogun Campus, P. M. B. 5026, Ifo, Ogun State, Nigeria. Author
  • H. O. Adeyemi Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, College of Engineering and Environmental Studies (CEES), Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ibogun Campus, P. M. B. 5026, Ifo, Ogun State, Nigeria. Author
  • T. O. Opafola Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, College of Engineering and Environmental Studies (CEES), Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ibogun Campus, P. M. B 5026, Ifo, Ogun State, Nigeria. Author
  • C. F. Emeadi Department of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, College of Engineering and Environmental Studies (CEES), Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ibogun Campus, P. M. B. 5026, Ifo, Ogun State, Nigeria. Author

Keywords:

Absorption, Adsorption, Briquette, Total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH), Water quality, Water treatment

Abstract

In crude oil catchment areas of oil-producing countries, oil spillage is a serious environmental challenge. As a result, fertile agricultural lands get polluted and degraded, the morbidity of aquatic animals is rampant, and water is rendered unfit for drinking and general household usage. This work offers a solution to this environmental menace by utilizing sawdust briquettes as filter media in filter columns to purify crude oil-contaminated water. Subjecting both the oil-polluted water and treated water to total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) test and water quality test, the study investigated the effectiveness of using the filter columns and the suitability of using the treated water for irrigation purposes. From the results, the adsorption capacity was in the range of 2.86 and 4.01 g/g. It was established that the filter was very effective in treating oil-polluted water as the TPH concentration sharply reduced to about 96.1% from 32960 mg/L in the oil-polluted water to 1284 mg/L in the treated water. However, the reduced TPH, was above the EU EPA standard TPH level required for river and basin waters. The physicochemical properties for the treated water as compared with the oil-polluted water showed drastic ECw increase (172.13 ± 0.06 to 708.00 ± 114.59 μS/cm, depicting slight salinity), increased TDS (114.24 ± 0.01 to 479.33 ± 44.99 mg/L), reduced pH but very strongly acidic (6.50 ± 0.00 to 4.37 ± 0.06), reduced turbidity (8.96 ± 0.02 to 5.88 ± 0.24 NTU), increased alkalinity but below optimum (13.12 ± 0.01 to 21.59 ± 0.76 mg/L), and reduced colour (55.18 ± 0.03 to 15.10 ± 0.56 Hz). For the heavy metals, only Copper (Cu), Chromium (Cr) and Iron (Fe) were within the standard limit of irrigation waters while Cadmium (Cd) and Manganese (Mn) were not. It was, therefore, concluded that though it is evident that the use of sawdust briquette as a filter is effective at reducing TPH in crude oil-contaminated water, the treated water is altogether not suitable for irrigation purposes. Therefore, it was recommended that the sawdust filter be upgraded to attain TPH level standard limit.

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Published

2025-05-14

Issue

Vol. 27 No. 1 (2022): JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (JAET)

Section

Articles