R. Asadpour - Geosciences & Petroleum Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia
N. B. Sapari - Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia
M. Hasnain Isac - Civil Engineering Programme, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Brunei, Brunei Darussalam
S. Kakooei - Mechanical Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia

Oil spills from tanker or oil well have detrimental effects on environment and economy. One of the most economical and efficient methods for oil spill clean-up is mechanical extraction by sorbents which are not only the safest methods but also the least expensive of spill control. The potential use of agricultural by-products such as corn silk for adsorbent of crude oil from water systems was published in our previous work. In the current research, the percentage of acetylation and hydrophobicity of the treated corn silk were measured. The reflux time for the acetylation process was one of the primary parameters that enhanced the acetylation process. The characteristics of the enhanced corn silk was determined at different reflux times by FT-IR spectroscopy. The experimental data followed the pseudo second order kinetic model. The study suggested the Freundlich model show good correlation coefficients for the adsorption of crude oil on acetylated corn silk.

Degree of Hydrophobicity, Degree of Acetylation, Oil Sorption Capacity, Kinetic study, Equilibrium Isotherms