Lipophilic, nanocellulose based macroporous sponge loaded with mixed microorganisms for efficient elimination of petroleum hydrocarbon pollution in water

The efficient elimination of petroleum hydrocarbon (PH) pollution remains a big challenge due to their easy accumulation and severe environmental toxicity. In this study, we demonstrated a novel nanocellulose based hydrophobic/lipophilic macroporous sponge loaded with microorganisms (B10NCS-DTMS, sponge prepared from nanocellulose: NCS, the NCS was immobilized 10 times: B10NCS, The B10NCS surface was sprayed with modified n-dodecyltrimethoxysilane: B10NCS-DTMS) for efficient elimination of PH pollution in water. Compared with the materials previously studied, this microporous/ superwetting structure can load more microorganisms and provide space and nutrients for the growth and reproduction of microorganisms, and mixed microorganisms have an excellent synergistic degradation effect, which greatly improves the degradation potential. We modified the surface of material loaded with microorganisms by using high stability modified long chain silane solution, which showed excellent selective adsorption performance. As expected, using a petroleum n-hexadecane solution with a concentration of 5% as model oily wastewater, B10NCS-DTMS possesses both a superior selective absorption of about 99% within 12 h and a high degradation rate of 95.85% within 96 h. In addition, B10NCS-DTMS showed more strong tolerance under different pH, temperature, and initial concentration conditions. Compared with other studies, the B10NCS-DTMS has the advantages of high biological activity, scalable manufacturing, no secondary pollution, and green and high efficiency, which might pave a new way to efficiently eliminate PH pollution from water. Graphical Abstract