Alireza Bazargan

Porous Carbons from Plastic Waste

Thermoplastic polymers (such as polypropylene, polyethylene, poly- vinyl chloride, polystyrene, etc.) are major constituents of municipal solid waste. Millions of tons of plastic waste are discarded each year, most of which is either incinerated or dumped in landfills. As an alternative, methods using these wastes as feeds for the production of value-added products such as fuels, carbon nanotubes, and porous carbons have been proposed by various researchers. In recent years there has been considerable research in the area of activated carbon production from plastic wastes and products with high surface areas and pore volumes have been produced. However, no literature survey has yet summarized the findings. Thus, herein, the studies pertaining to the production of porous carbon (such as activated carbon) from plastic wastes are reviewed for the first time. This review is organized on the basis of the type of plastic polymer used as the precursor. The first part covers various thermoplastics, whereas the second focuses more deeply on poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET). This is because the majority of research in this area has used PET. The low carbon yield may make the production of porous carbons from plastic waste impractical. Hence, the authors suggest an alternative integrated approach for future studies so that porous carbons can be produced as a byproduct during the conversion of plastics to gaseous and liquid products.

Standardization of Oil Sorbent Performance Testing

Millions of barrels of petroleum and its products are transported across the globe every day. The hazard of oil spills is a looming threat that can lead not only to the loss of valuable products, but also seriously damage the environment and ecosystems. There are various ways of combating oil spills one of which is the use of sorbents. The ASTM F716-09 and ASTM F726-12 standards have been developed for absorbent/adsorbent performance and uptake capacity testing. However, most researchers do not use the procedures proposed by the ASTM when reporting their findings. Currently, the majority of the manuscripts published on oil sorbent testing do not use any uniform standard. Herein, we argue that the ASTM standards have some shortcomings that make them unattractive for researchers to use. These problems are discussed and possible solutions are proposed for more homogeneous and accurate reporting of results.

Oil spill remedy using bi-axially oriented polymer films

Oil spill on water surface and shorelines has been a major source of water pollution. With the damaging impact to ecology and the long term effects of environmental pollution, demand for materials for cleaning up the water in a quick and effective way has increased. A number of sorbents have been recommended for the purpose of picking up oil from water. These range from natural products, such as inorganic porous products and organic biodegradable products. However, most of them reveal limited oil sorption capacity and also absorb water. Hence, it is felt that there is a need of producing a synthetic oil sorbent that not only has high sorption capacity but also, unlike other contemporary synthetic sorbents, proves to be strong and cost effective. In this paper, we are presenting a novel super oil sorbent polymer (oil-sap) sheet consisting of ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). The sorbent exhibits an uptake capacity of (276 g/g) and pickup density of (58 g/cm). In addition, it comprises a mechanically strong structure (tensile modulus and breaking stress of 1332 MPa and 171 MPa respectively). The unique blend of uptake capacity and strength along with cost effectiveness of the raw material (polyethylene) makes these sheets feasible candidates for mass production and application.