How to Choose Absorbents
At Spill Shop, we offer 3 types of loose absorbents. The table below gives a quick overview of the attributes of each of our spill-absorbent products.
| Type | Sorbency | Cost Effective | Use on Water | Abrasive | Degradable | Ease of Use | Environmental | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elcef Fibre | High | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Good | Yes | Instant |
| E-Sorb | Medium | Medium | No | No | Yes | Good | No | Quick |
| Clay Granules | Low | Low | No | Yes | No | Poor | No | Slow |
Good Housekeeping and Health & Safety
When using loose absorbents and similar spill-absorbent products, it is highly recommended that they be swept up and disposed of immediately after use. Once the granules have absorbed the majority of fluids you should collect and dispose of the soaked granular materials. Not only is this good practice but it should form part of your Health & Safety plan. Leaving hydrocarbon-saturated sorbents down creates both a slipping and fire hazard. It’s an incredibly easy and effective solution for cleaning up liquid and chemical spills in the workplace.
Elcef Fibre Universal Absorbent
The best all-round loose absorbent you can find on the market, Elcef Fibre is:
- Cost Effective – Absorbs up to seven times more than clay granules. This creates less waste and, alongside the added benefit of being a lightweight material, greatly reduces expensive disposal costs.
- Environmentally Friendly – Elcef Fibre Absorbent is derived from the naturally recurring waste products of the plantation industries. It is a non-toxic, biodegradable organic product to which nothing has been added, making it safe for you to use and kind to the environment.
- Lightweight & Hygenic – Making it convenient to handle, use and retrieve.
- Quick and Easy – Eclef Fibre gets to work immediately. The speed at which this spill-absorbant product works greatly reduces normal clean-up time.
- Non-Abrasive and Non-Leaching – This absorbent is non-abrasive to machinery, enabling areas to be cleaned that could not be tackled before. Elcef Fibre absorbs so completely that no oily residue is left, making your working area safer and eliminating slipping accidents.
- Excellent Vapour Suppressant – Quickly suppresses hydrocarbon vapours, restoring a safe working environment.
- Use in Wet or Dry Conditions – Elcef Fibre can work equally well in wet or dry conditions, a feature many sorbents can not purport to have that allows the product to be used outside as well as indoors. Moreover, Elcef Fibre is processed to always absorb hydrocarbons in preference to water. This means the removal of oil from water is yet another problem that Elcef Fibre can tackle.
E-Sorb
E-Sorb products are made from fine sawdust chemically treated to make it fire retardant. These oil spill clean-up granules are lightweight, highly absorbent, and have a low density to allow for easy transportation. Its wood fibre is designed for medium to large spills, but the product is not environmentally friendly due to the addition of chemicals.
Clay Granules – White
Clay absorbent granules are dust-free, heavyweight absorbent granules that can be effective for removing oil, fuel and water spills. Generally, it is considered the poorest loose absorbent on the market, as it is the least absorbent and slowest working. As well as this, the environmental friendliness is low since it is mined from the Earth’s natural resources. White clay granules are best used for outdoor spills, although they tend to ‘mud’ upon contact with liquid but provide a fire retardant absorbent granule.
Clay Granules – Pink
Pink clay granules have slightly better attributes than its white counterpart and are generally better suited to chemicals, but still with poor absorbency. Again, it is not an environmentally friendly product because it is mined from the Earth’s natural resources.