Kraft lignin: a novel alternative to oil spill cleanup recycling industrial waste

Oil spills occur frequently due to negligence or through acts of vandalism or war. Marine oil spills damage marine, coastal, and ter¬restrial habitats, as well as impact coastal economies. In order to palliate such issues, researchers are working to develop cost ef¬fective and environmentally safe methods of adsorbing oil from oil spills. In this paper, a complex chemical compound found in the secondary cell walls of plants and ex¬tracted as a waste product of the pulping process known as kraft lignin was tested as an adsorbing material for oil spills. Lignin is light, and its high surface energy and wet¬tability allow it to interact with charged oil droplets. It was found that lignin can absorb 80% of the carbon introduced into water by oil spills within 12 hours of treatment. This study demonstrates a novel method for resolving oil spills using kraft lignin. After it is saturated with oil, lignin can be inciner¬ated, and its high calorific value can be used to produce energy from what would other¬wise be a waste product.Les fuites de pétrole sont produites fréquemment à cause de la négligence, des actes de vandalisme ou de la guerre. Les fuites de pétrole en mer en¬dommagent les écosystèmes maritimes, côtières et terrestres, et affectent les économies côtières. Pour atténuer de tels problèmes, les chercheurs tentent de développer des méthodes rentables et écologiques pour absorber le pétrole des fuites. Dans ce rapport, un composé chimique compli¬qué trouvé dans la paroi cellulaire secondaire des plantes et extrait comme produit résiduaire du processus de réduction en pâte, connu sous le nom de lignine ‘kraft’, a été testé comme matériel absorbant pour les fuites de pétrole. Les pro¬priétés de la lignine, y compris sa légèreté, son énergie de surface élevée et sa mouillabilité, la permettent d’interagir avec les gouttes de pétrole chargées. La lignine est capable d’absorber 80% du charbon introduit dans l’eau par les fuites de pétrole en 12 heures de traitement ou moins. Cette étude démontre une solution originalepour l’absorption du pétrole des fuites pétro-lières. Après avoir été saturée avec le pétrole, la lignine peut être incinérée, et sa valeur calori-fique élevée permet la production d’énergie à partir de ce qui aurait été autrement gaspillé

Acute health effects of the Tasman Spirit oil spill on residents of Karachi, Pakistan

BACKGROUND: On July 27 2003, a ship carrying crude oil run aground near Karachi and after two weeks released 37,000 tons of its cargo into the sea. Oil on the coastal areas and fumes in air raised health concerns among people. We assessed the immediate health impact of oil spill from the tanker Tasman Spirit on residents of the affected coastline in Karachi, Pakistan. METHODS: We conducted a study consisting of an exposed group including adults living in houses on the affected shoreline and two control groups (A and B) who lived at the distance of 2 km and 20 km away from the sea, respectively. We selected households through systematic sampling and interviewed an adult male and female in each household about symptoms relating to eyes, respiratory tract, skin and nervous system, smoking, allergies, beliefs about the effect on their health and anxiety about the health effects. We used logistic regression procedures to model each symptom as an outcome and the exposure status as an independent variable while adjusting for confounders. We also used linear regression procedure to assess the relationship exposure status with symptoms score; calculated by summation of all symptoms. RESULTS: Overall 400 subjects were interviewed (exposed, n = 216; group A, n = 83; and group B, n = 101). The exposed group reported a higher occurrence of one or more symptoms compared to either of the control groups (exposed, 96% vs. group A, 70%, group B 85%; P < 0.001). Mean summary symptom scores were higher among the exposed group (14.5) than control group A (4.5) and control group B (3.8, P < 0.001). Logistic regression models indicated that there were statistically significant, moderate-to-strong associations (Prevalence ORs (POR) ranging from 2.3 to 37.0) between the exposed group and the symptoms. There was a trend of decreasing symptom-specific PORs with increase in distance from the spill site. Multiple linear regression model revealed strong relationship of exposure status with the symptoms score (β = 8.24, 95% CI: 6.37 – 10.12). CONCLUSION: Results suggest that the occurrence of increased symptoms among the exposed group is more likely to be due to exposure to the crude oil spill