A Comparative Study on the Oil Sorption Capacity of Chitosan Extracted from Asian Green Mussel Shells to Shrimp Shells as an Oil Spill Sorbent

In search for other alternatives to remove spilled oil in different bodies of water, this study was undertaken to evaluate the sorption capacity of the chitosan extracted from Perna Veridis, in comparison with the chitosan extracted from shrimp shells. This study assessed as to what degree of deacetylation could be obtained from the chitosan extracted from Perna Veridis and as to which size samples of sorbents prepared (flakes and powder) was more efficient. The water uptake capacity (g/g sorbent) and the oil retention (g oil sorbed) of the chitosan from 2 different size of samples were measured for additional data. The computed degree of deacetylation from Titration I has a value of 76.83% which is a desirable percentage for extraction and determination of chitosan’s presence. The results in the experiment showed that the chitosan flakes (0.45g/g) and powder (0.39g/g) had better adsorption capacities compared to shrimp’s flakes (0.38g/g) and shrimp’s powder (0.28g/g). The chitosan flakes also topped its powdered form in terms of sorption capacity. Water uptake capacities of flakes and powder both obtained an amount of 1g based on the difference of wet-static and dry-static setups. The oil retention obtained by flakes was 1.67g and the powder was found to be 1.33g