Application of cellulase for the modification of corn stalk: Leading to oil sorption

•Cellulase was used as modifier to produce oil sorbent for the first time.•The cellulase-modified corn stalk was used for oil spill recovery.•Cellulase modification of corn stalk can improve oil sorption capacities significantly.•Enzymatic modification is a green way to produce oil sorbent.

In this work, a new biotechnological procedure was developed using cellulase as a modifier to produce oil sorbent from corn stalk (CMCS). Cellulase treatment of raw corn stalk (RCS) with enzyme loading of 100 U/g at 45 °C for 6 h resulted in high oil sorption capacity. The sorption capacities of vegetable oil, diesel and crude oil by CMCS were 18.47, 16.15 and 27.23 g/g, respectively, which were found to be much higher than RCS. XRD, BET and SEM were applied to characterize RCS and CMCS. The effects of sorbent dose (0.1–0.5 g), initial oil amount (5–30 g), and the sorption kinetics were also studied. This work demonstrated that corn stalk modified by cellulase is an efficient and environment-friendly biosorbent for the removal of spilled oil.