Abstract
Oil spill cleanup is one of the major environmental issues facing the world today; this problem is often compounded by the delayed response of emergency teams in the supply of sorbents for cleanup operations. Although sorption is considered the preferred method of cleanup, its success is often hindered by the centralized production of synthetic sorbents. In this paper, we report on the development of a mobile manufacturing container to produce polyurethane-based oil sorbents. The system has been optimized for the entire production process of polyurethane-based sorbents through the precise measurement of polyether polyol, isocyanate, and water ratios in the mixture to produce an open-cell foam with a density of 16 kg/m³ and a special pore structure in which 80% of the pores are less than 50 μm in diameter. From the experimental results obtained using this sorbent, it was evident that it was capable of fully absorbing 100 mL of crude oil on the surface of water within 10 minutes; in addition, this sorbent was able to maintain its high performance after 5-10 cycles of mechanical regeneration. The transition from a centralized production system to one of decentralized production of sorbents for cleanup operations is a major step towards solving the problems of delayed response in cleanup operations.