Sustainable Reuse of Char Waste for Oil Spill Recovery Foams

The aim of this work is the employment of char waste in the synthesis of silicon foams for oil spill remediation and the comparison analysis with carbon nanotubes-filled foams. The foams are obtained by foaming a slurry constituted by a silicone matrix with CNT or char filler (7.7 wt%) in presence of a Sn-based catalyst. All the investigated materials present a foam morphology with an open/closed cell structure. Each foam was tested in three used common oils (kerosene, crude oil, and pump oil). Also, hydrophilic behavior of the foam was investigated. CNT showed a 700% sorption capacity in light oils (almost 7 g(oil)/g(foam) in kerosene); on the contrary, char foam evidenced the higher sorption efficiency in heavier oils; in particular, it reaches 130% in pump oil (1.3 g(oil)/g(foam)). All the filled foams are reusable. The reuse increases the foam efficiency and decreases the economic and environmental impacts.