Tanning industries emit a huge quantity of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), including hydrophilic and
hydrophobic solvents. In this study, vegetable oil/water emulsions with 2 and 5 vol% of corn oil (O) or waste
cooking oil (WCO) were prepared. Their potential as absorbents of n-butyl acetate (BA), in place of water, was
investigated to increase the efficiency of tannery wet scrubbers. BA was selected as a representative component
of hydrophobic VOC emissions derived from leather finishing processes. Static and dynamic absorption tests were
performed with a BA concentration of 500 ppmv (2.6 g/m3
) and a flowrate of 3.0 L/min to evaluate Henry’s law
constant, absorption efficiency, absorption capacity, and saturation time of the various investigated absorbents.
The feasibility of the absorbent regeneration was also studied by hot stripping with nitrogen. The results showed
that Henry’s constant of BA in oil/surfactant/water or oil/water emulsions (5 vol% oil), regardless of the oil
used, were significantly lower than those in water (3.6 versus 15.9 atm), and BA absorption capacity (0.84 g/L)
was four times higher than the value in water. The presence of the surfactant (0.2–0.8 vol%) contributed to
improving the oil/water emulsions stability without having a significant effect on BA absorption capacity. Almost
complete BA desorption from the saturated emulsions was obtained by flowing hot N2 at 80◦C, demonstrating the
absorbent regeneration’s feasibility followed by recovery and reuse. Therefore, the oil/water emulsions containing 5 vol% of WCO are efficient and sustainable absorbents of BA, with potential use in VOC emission treatment systems
