fairfolio
Saved Projects

Polyester: The Ultimate Oil Spill Solution

CSEF · 2013 Chemistry First Award

Stephanie Y. Chang · Medea Creek Middle School, Oak Park, Ventura County

Overview

Objectives/Goals The objective is to find out which biodegradable or recyclable material is the best oil spill absorbent. Since polyester is processed from crude oil, which has the "like dissolves like" principle in organic chemistry, my goal is to prove that recyclable polyester will absorb the most oil. Methods/Materials I used gravimetric method to do this experiment. First, I weighted 10g of each oil absorbent material. Then I put it in a pan that contained motor oil. After 2 minutes, I reweighed the absorbent. I then calculated the mass of motor oil absorbed and compared the absorbing capability between the different oil absorbent materials. My independent variable was the different types of oil absorbent materials, and my dependent variable was the mass of the absorbed motor oil. My controlled variables included: the type of motor oil, the mass of the oil absorbent material, and the duration of time in absorbing oil. Results The order of absorbency from least to greatest was: charcoal, oak bark, human hair, cheese cloth, and polyester. Polyester absorbs about 28 times its weight in motor oil. The absorbing capability of polyester is about three times compared to cheese cloth, which is the second best motor oil absorbent. Conclusions/Discussion In conclusion, I learned that polyester is the best motor oil absorbent among charcoal, oak bark, human hair, and cheese cloth. I also learned that different textures and fiber of polyester have a different capability in absorbing motor oil. Among all the different types of polyester that were used in the experiment, polyethylene terephthalate has the best oil absorbing performance. Through this experiment, I had proven my hypothesis to be correct.

Summary statement

Throughout my experiment, I have determined that polyester is the ultimate oil spill absorbent.

Help received

My parents taught me how to plot the graphs using Excel spreadsheet.

Awards (1)

Competition history

  • CSEF 2013 Chemistry · Entry J0698

Resources

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

Source: California Science & Engineering Fair public projects

Save projects to your library

Sign in with Google to keep track of projects you find interesting, organized into folders. An account also raises your daily allowance for “Has this been done?”, and lets you create a key for the MCP server with a much higher limit than anonymous use. Browsing stays public.

Continue with Google