Adsorption of petroleum hydrocarbons on organoclay

In this study organically modified montmorillonite (organoclay) prepared by exchanging of the Hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (HDTMA) with sodium ions in montmorillonite structure was tested for petroleum hydrocarbon adsorption. The effectiveness of the sorbent materials for sorption of a range of products that are likely to be involved in oily wastewaters and land-based oil spills was investigated using crude oil, kerosene, gasoline. The process parameters such as sorbent dosage and contact time were reported. Results showed that adsorption capacity of the organoclay was clearly higher than of the unmodified clay. The obtained results in a batch wise process also showed that depending on the hydrocarbons the adsorption capacity was in the range of 4 to 10 gram per gram of adsorbent. It was found that hydrocarbon removal decreased with the amount of sorbent. Also adsorption equilibrium was attained within 1 hr.