A STUDY ON KAPOK FIBER FOR OIL/WATER SEPARATION: POTENTIAL FOR ESSENTIAL OIL RECOVERY AND EFFECTS OF PACKING DENSITY, HYDROPHOBICITY, AND TYPE OF OIL

• Main Author: Jeremy
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Subjects: Teknik (Rekayasa, enjinering dan kegiatan berkaitan)
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/55501
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

tonnes/year. Along time, kapok fibers began to be forgotten and are now used only as pillow fillings. Even though, kapok fiber has void spaces with hydrophobic-oleophilic surface, suitable as sorbent. This study focuses on studying kapok fiber advancement as an oil sorbent regarding the effect of its packing density, modified kapok fiber hydrophobicity-oleophilicity, and kapok fiber affinity towards several oil types to oil sorption capacity. Study was done through inferential statistic analysis. Analysis results then used to study the potential of using kapok fiber for essential oil recovery, especially clove oil, the largest produced essential oil in Indonesia. The study shows higher packing density leads to lower reusability and higher sorption capacity. It was found that optimum packing density of 0,035 g/mL resulted in 23,43 goil/ g-sorbent with 18,5% sorption loss in 4th enhanced into superhydrophobic-oleophilic through DTMS coating with TEOS as precursor. Higher hydrophobicity means higher sorption capacity. It was found that a DTMS/TEOS mol ratio of 0,0886 results highest contact angle of 157°. It was also found that higher -polarity result in higher sorption capacity, following . Silanation costs Rp1054/g-kapok. Judging from the high cost of modification using DTMS/TEOS, there is a need to search for an alternative sorbent usage. One prospect is to use sorbent to increase the yield of essential oil production. Modified kapok fiber is estimated sorption capacity is 66,7 gclove oil/g-sorbent with a GPM of 90,24%.