Exfoliated graphite was found to sorb selectively a large amount of heavy oil, about 80 g of heavy oil floating on water per 1 g of exfoliated graphite, which is highly possible to be applied to recovering spilled heavy oil. Sorption capacity, selectivity and kinetics of exfoliated graphite were reviewed. The possibility of recovery of heavy oil from exfoliated graphite and recycling of both recovered heavy oil and exfoliated graphite was also discussed. Its sorption performance was compared with other materials which were reported to show sorption of heavy oil.

• Michio Inagaki(Aichi Institute of Technology)
• Masahiro Toyoda(Fukui National College of Technology)
• Norio Iwashita(Osaka National Research Institute, AIST)
• Yoko Nishi(Osaka National Research Institute, AIST)
• Hidetaka Konno(Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University)