LV14821A - Porous carbon granule sorbent and method for its production - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention pertains to the area of ecology and environmental protection, especially to sorbents for oil spill response. The offered manufacturing process of sorbent consists of the following steps: obtaining of viscous mass by mechanical activation of peat in the water environment; adding a dry mix (peat, fine peat wastes, agriicultural by-products of plant origin, clay, ferromagnetic particles, optionally microspheres) to the obtained viscous mass; mixing all the components until the uniform mass is obtained; formation of granules with a diameter of 2 to 20 mm; drying and pyrolysis of obtained granules at the temperature of 350 to 500 °C. As a result the carbon granules with a large specific surface area, low density and porosity gradients are obtained. Sorbent has hydrophobic properties without any additional treatment. Due to oleophilic properties, increased buoyancy and hydrophobicity the proposed granular porous carbon sorbent can be used for safe and effective clean up of the environment from oil pollution, particularly for oil spill response on the water surface. It can be used both as a bulk material scattered on the surface of the water and as the filler of floating structures, such as protective floating booms, as well as water treatment cartridge filters filled with granular sorbent. In the composition of sorbent the ferromagnetic particles and closed cell microspheres are included that determines good buoyancy and allows to use it for gathering of sorbent by electromagnetic receivers.