Chiavone Filho, OsvaldoMedeiros, Leonardo Farias de2023-07-062023-07-062023-06-20MEDEIROS, Leonardo Farias de. Reciclagem de espumas de poliuretano pós-consumo através de modificações superficiais para recuperação de óleos derramados em água do mar. Orientador: Osvaldo Chiavone Filho. 2023. 51f. Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso (Graduação em Engenharia Química) - Departamento de Engenharia Química, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, 2023.https://repositorio.ufrn.br/handle/123456789/53098Post-consumer polyurethane foams used in upholstery and mattresses have a tremendous environmental impact due to their low value as waste. Another significant environmental problem is oil spills into the oceans caused by offshore oil exploration and transport. This work relates one problem to the other in search of a solution that satisfies both. Based on low-cost surface modifications with few associated unit operations, post-consumer polyurethane foams were grafted with ZnO and/or coated with hexadecanoic acid to increase the foams' oil affinity. The characterizations showed that the modifications promoted changes in the foams' surfaces and that in all modifications there was an increase in the contact angle between the water droplets and the surface of the modified foams, indicating an increase in the surfaces' hydrophobicity. In general, in the monocomponent sorption tests, the unaltered and modified foams absorbed less seawater than distilled water. As for the oils, there was no statistical difference in diesel oil sorption. However, ZnO-modified foams performed much better for lubricating oil than unaltered foams. In the water-diesel multicomponent tests, both for the system with distilled water and seawater, the results for the sorption of diesel oil were statistically similar due to the low viscosity of the diesel, which is a factor that prevails over the apolar intermolecular forces provided by the modifications. As for the water-lubricant system, the foams that received grafting (ZnO) and treatment combined with a coating (ZnO/AH) showed the best results in lubricating oil recovery, with increases of up to 800%. As the oil's viscosity increased, the intermolecular forces provided by the modifications prevailed. In the foam reuse tests, it was observed that the foams did not lose oil recovery capacity even after 10 cycles of sorption and desorption.Attribution 3.0 Brazilhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/br/HidrofobizaçãoOleofilizaçãoReuso e reciclagemPolímerosHydrophobizationOil affinityReuse and recyclingPolymersbachelorThesis