Solar-assisted fast cleanup of heavy oil spills using a photothermal sponge

Chang, Junseok; Shi, Yusuf; Wu, Mengchun; Li, Renyuan; Shi, Le; Jin, Yong; Qing, Weihua; Tang, Chuyang Y.; Wang, Peng

doi:10.1039/c8ta00779a

Cited by 172 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…The volumetric ratio of these two types of channels are almost the same in both the natural wood and HC‐Wood, but the total porosity increases from 57.4% to 73.8% after the pyrolysis (Figure h; Figures S6 and S7, Supporting Information). Moreover, unlike other heat‐assisted porous absorbers with low thermal conductivity (<0.2 W m −1 K −1 ), the thermal conductivity of the HC‐Wood along the channel direction ( L ‐direction) is ≈0.6 W m −1 K −1 (Figure i). The improved thermal conductivity of the HC‐Wood can be accredited to the straight and short pathways for thermal transfer along the L ‐direction of the low tortuosity structure.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, these absorbents generally focus on the recovery of low‐viscosity oil, while under similar test conditions with viscous crude oil (Viscosity >1000 mPa s), the absorption rate (AR) of previously reported devices is prone to deteriorate. Novel methods using heat to decrease the viscosity of the oil is a promising way to address this issue, but not easily transferable to real‐world situations where the material and operation costs are considered to be extremely critical in addressing the problem of large‐area off‐shore oil spills. Moreover, the thermal property of the absorber and the fluid dynamics of porous systems for oil spills remains unclear.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bioinspired Solar‐Heated Carbon Absorbent for Efficient Cleanup of Highly Viscous Crude Oil

Kuang

Chen

Guang

et al. 2019

Adv Funct Materials

136

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Efficient cleanup of viscous crude oil spill is a worldwide challenge due to its sluggish flowability at room temperature. Conventional oil remediation methods using physical absorbers, skimmers, and vacuum technologies either demonstrate low absorption efficiency or have severe operational restrictions. Inspired by the highly efficient and passive transpiration process in trees, a solar-heated carbon absorber (HC-Wood) with an inherited wood structure of aligned channels for rapid crude oil absorption is reported. The unique porous structure of the carbon absorber can extend the light absorption paths, guide the direction of heat transport, and decrease the resistance to oil flows, endowing the carbon absorber a large efficiency of solar absorption (>99% of the incident irradiation), excellent thermal management, and fast capillarity-driven oil absorption behavior. The low tortuosity of the porous structure together with the efficient solar-thermal conversion enable the absorber to demonstrate a crude oil absorption rate of 1550 mL m −2 in 30 s under 1 sun irradiation, which is 10 times faster than previously reported results for passive absorption of viscous crude oil. Given the unique structural design, low operating cost, and rapid oil absorption speed, this work provides a promising solution for addressing catastrophic large-area viscous oil spills.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioinspired Solar‐Heated Carbon Absorbent for Efficient Cleanup of Highly Viscous Crude Oil

Kuang

Chen

Guang

et al. 2019

Adv Funct Materials

136

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show abstract

“…However, as the temperature rises, the viscosity gradually decreases. When the temperature rose above 60 °C, the viscosity dropped below 100 mPa s, which is the viscosity of light oils at room temperature . This viscosity drop of the crude oil greatly improved the kinetics of oil absorption.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self‐Growth of MoS₂ Sponge for Highly Efficient Photothermal Cleanup of High‐Viscosity Crude Oil Spills

Yang

et al. 2020

Adv Materials Inter

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For dealing with crude oil spills, the high viscosity of crude oil greatly limits the absorption capacity of the absorbent materials, making crude oil a major obstacle in the cleaning process. Herein, a MoS2‐rubber sponge (MoS2‐RS), as a photothermal sorbent, is prepared by a one‐step in situ synthesis. The sponge exhibits excellent superhydrophobicity (the water contact angle is 151°), a high absorption capacity for oils and organic liquids (15–67 g g−1), and an outstanding compressive elasticity of 38.6 kPa. Furthermore, MoS2‐RS shows a good photothermal conversion capability. Under illumination, the viscosity of crude oil could be effectively reduced due to the rapid temperature rise in MoS2‐RS. This response allows the modified sponge to quickly absorb crude oil, which significantly reduces the adsorption time of 20 µL crude oil from 16 h to 19 s when compared to that of absorbent materials without a photothermal conversion capability. Because of the excellent mechanical performance, MoS2‐RS could be installed in a vacuum pump to continuously collect crude oil from the water surface. This setup greatly improves the crude oil collecting efficiency. The new photothermal absorbent material shows great potential for the collection of crude oil and the cleanup of spill accidents.

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“…These increased conjugated π bonds will result in a red-shift of the absorption light spectrum, which greatly benefits in the solar energy utilization efficiency. [75] For example, Wang and co-workers demonstrated that CNT-coated sponges display 99% sunlight harvesting performance, and their surface equilibrium temperature can reach up to 88 °C, [75] implying a remarkable photothermal conversion efficiency. Due to strong absorption property (up to 98% in visible and near-infrared region) [60] and high thermal conductivity (6000 W m −1 k −1 ), [72] these CNT-based photothermal convertors can not only efficiently generate a lot of thermal energy, but also fast transfer thermal energy into surrounding medium via radiation and conduction method.…”

Section: Carbon Nanotube and Graphenementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Photothermal-enhanced Photocatalysis For Dye Degradationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Harnessing Solar‐Driven Photothermal Effect toward the Water–Energy Nexus

et al. 2019

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Producing affordable freshwater has been considered as a great societal challenge, and most conventional desalination technologies are usually accompanied with large energy consumption and thus struggle with the trade‐off between water and energy, i.e., the water–energy nexus. In recent decades, the fast development of state‐of‐the‐art photothermal materials has injected new vitality into the field of freshwater production, which can effectively harness abundant and clean solar energy via the photothermal effect to fulfill the blue dream of low‐energy water purification/harvesting, so as to reconcile the water–energy nexus. Driven by the opportunities offered by photothermal materials, tremendous effort has been made to exploit diverse photothermal‐assisted water purification/harvesting technologies. At this stage, it is imperative and important to review the recent progress and shed light on the future trend in this multidisciplinary field. Here, a brief introduction of the fundamental mechanism and design principle of photothermal materials is presented, and the emerging photothermal applications such as photothermal‐assisted water evaporation, photothermal‐assisted membrane distillation, photothermal‐assisted crude oil cleanup, photothermal‐enhanced photocatalysis, and photothermal‐assisted water harvesting from air are summarized. Finally, the unsolved challenges and future perspectives in this field are emphasized. It is envisioned that this work will help arouse future research efforts to boost the development of solar‐driven low‐energy water purification/harvesting.

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Solar-assisted fast cleanup of heavy oil spills using a photothermal sponge

Abstract: Photothermal material-assisted solar-driven heavy oil removal is promising for highly viscous oil-spill cleanup.

Cited by 172 publications

References 37 publications

Bioinspired Solar‐Heated Carbon Absorbent for Efficient Cleanup of Highly Viscous Crude Oil

Bioinspired Solar‐Heated Carbon Absorbent for Efficient Cleanup of Highly Viscous Crude Oil

Self‐Growth of MoS₂ Sponge for Highly Efficient Photothermal Cleanup of High‐Viscosity Crude Oil Spills

Harnessing Solar‐Driven Photothermal Effect toward the Water–Energy Nexus

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Solar-assisted fast cleanup of heavy oil spills using a photothermal sponge

Abstract: Photothermal material-assisted solar-driven heavy oil removal is promising for highly viscous oil-spill cleanup.

Cited by 172 publications

References 37 publications

Bioinspired Solar‐Heated Carbon Absorbent for Efficient Cleanup of Highly Viscous Crude Oil

Bioinspired Solar‐Heated Carbon Absorbent for Efficient Cleanup of Highly Viscous Crude Oil

Self‐Growth of MoS2 Sponge for Highly Efficient Photothermal Cleanup of High‐Viscosity Crude Oil Spills

Harnessing Solar‐Driven Photothermal Effect toward the Water–Energy Nexus

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Self‐Growth of MoS₂ Sponge for Highly Efficient Photothermal Cleanup of High‐Viscosity Crude Oil Spills