Sorption of styrene from aqueous solutions with oil absorptive resin

We demonstrated the utility of oil-absorbing 4-tert-butylstyrene-divinylbenzene-ethylene/propylene/diene resins in the removal of environmental hormones such as styrene from water. A maximum treatment efficiency of 99.47% was observed when using a static process, while the dynamic process yielded a maximum efficiency of 96.25%. The sorption efficiency was greater for solutions containing higher initial concentrations of styrene and for extended static contact times, but decreased with increasing hydraulic retention time. The influences of styrene concentration, sorption time, and hydraulic retention time on sorption efficiency were successfully predicted using a polynomial equation, sigmoidal function and exponential decay equation, respectively. It was found that the sorption process was well described by a first-order kinetic model.