Oil released in the ocean causes enormous environmental problems. The oil covers animals living near the water's surface causing them harm and in most cases killing them and the oil harms even those animals living under the surface. When oil spills occur, there are a few current methods employed to clean them up. Methods include burning the oil on the surface, using skimmers to remove the oil from the surface or using chemical dispersants to chemically break down the oil. All of these methods have their faults, and each can introduce their own environmental problems instead of fixing them. I plan on creating a natural sorbent from the plant fibers of Pennisetum setaceum that can be used to absorb the oil. To accomplish a higher absorption capacity, I used a mercerization treatment that entailed soaking the plant fibers in a 5% sodium hydroxide

solution. This technique, typically used for treating cotton textiles, was applied to the plant fibers of Pennisetum setaceum. The treatment is intended to cause the plant fibers to swell up and changes the cellulose from cellulose I to cellulose ll opening up the structure. The plant fibers were then tested with 5W20 motor oil and DI water in a separatory funnel, so the water, oil and plant could be measured separately.

The treated plant fibers showed an average absorption capacity of 133.52% and removed an average of 8.15% of the oil. The treated plants performed better than the untreated that has an average absorption capacity of 46.89% and cleaned 2.75% of the oil. However, the treated plants showed a higher affinity toward the water with an average water absorption capacity of 154.20%. It is likely that the plants absorbed the water better because it is a less viscous substance. The plants cleaned less oil than I originally wanted which means large quantities of plant would be needed to clean and actual oil spill. My experiment showed promise that at treated Pennisetum setaceum could be a possible solution to removing oil from the ocean. However to further the development of this product, future studies could include finding an efficient mechanism of removing the plant fibers from the water and safely disposing of the plant fibers after they have absorbed the oil as well as scaling up the testing to more closely simulate an oil spill.