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Agricultural sorbents have received attention for their effectiveness in oil removal. In Malaysia, oil palm's empty fruit bunch (EFB) spikelets are an abundant agricultural waste that provides a non-toxic, renewable resource of cellulosic materials. In this study, the effectiveness of EFB spikelets to remove oil spills from seawater pollution in a filter system was investigated and the best optimisation approach for filtering conditions was determined. Experiments for oil spill clean-up were performed using a filter-based oil sorption system with a series of conditions such as temperature, time, packing density, and oil concentration to evaluate sorption capacity, oil and water absorbed efficiency. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to characterise the physicochemical properties of untreated and treated EFB fibres. Based on one-factor-at -a-time (OFAT) analysis conducted at 160 °C for 30 min on 0.1 g/cm3 of packing density containing 25% diesel, 8.667 mL of oil and 5 mL of water was absorbed. In response surface methodology (RSM), the three parameters of temperature, packing density and diesel concentration were observed as significant. From RSM fitting model analysis, the predicted value obtained for both oil and water absorbed were 8.805 and 5.213 mL, respectively. The experimental RSM values of 9 and 5 mL of oil and water absorbed were obtained. The result demonstrated the validity of the model as the experimental RSM values were close to the RSM model's prediction. As compared to OFAT, the RSM method is more efficient in oil removal. This research contributes to a better knowledge of the usage of a natural sorbent as a method of diesel pollution remediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oil pollution such as diesel poses a significant threat to the environment. Due to this, there is increasing interest in using natural materials mainly from agricultural waste as organic oil spill sorbents. Oil palm's empty fruit bunch (EFB), a cost-effective material, non-toxic, renewable resource, and abundantly available in Malaysia, contains cellulosic materials that have been proven to show a good result in pollution treatment. This study evaluated the optimum screening part of EFB that efficiently absorbs oil and the physicochemical characterisation of untreated and treated EFB fibre using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The treatment conditions were optimised using one-factor-at-a-time (OFAT), which identified optimal treatment conditions of 170 °C, 20 min, 0.1 g/cm3, and 10% diesel, resulting in 23 mL of oil absorbed. The predicted model was highly significant in statistical Response Surface Methodology (RSM) and confirmed that all the parameters (temperature, time, packing density, and diesel concentration) significantly influenced the oil absorbed. The predicted values in RSM were 175 °C, 22.5 min, 0.095 g/cm3, and 10%, which resulted in 24 mL of oil absorbed. Using the experimental values generated by RSM, 175 °C, 22.5 min, 0.095 g/cm3, and 10%, the highest oil absorption achieved was 24.33 mL. This study provides further evidence, as the data suggested that RSM provided a better approach to obtain a high efficiency of oil absorbed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]