Absorbents Guide
Absorbents are products that can be used to contain or clean up a chemical spill. However, some absorbents can react with particular chemicals (that is, they are incompatible), so caution should be used in selecting the correct absorbent for your situation.
The guide was developed as a tool to help aid you in making decisions about absorbent use.
- Begin by reviewing General Guidance on Absorbents to learn about common situations to watch out for—including steps you can take to minimize potential problems. (These situations are based on case histories of actual industrial accidents.)
- The remaining topics in this guide profile five common classes of absorbents (Cellulose-Based Absorbents, Dirt/Earth, Expanded Polymeric Absorbents, Mineral- and Clay-Based Absorbents, and Sand) by focusing on groups of chemicals that are potentially incompatible and may react with particular absorbents.
Note that this guide is intended as a starting point, rather than an all-inclusive reference. Use this information with caution and consult with experts if you have questions that aren't fully answered by this guide.
Absorbent Incompatibilities on Datasheets
This guide provides information on incompatibilities between absorbents and general groups of chemicals (such as strong oxidizers). Additionally, you can also see information about potentially incompatible absorbents in the Hazards section on a chemical datasheet.
To develop this information on incompatible absorbents, accident data from the chemical industry was analyzed to identify incompatibilities between absorbent classes and particular chemicals. To broaden the incompatibility guidance beyond just those chemicals, it was assumed that substances with similar chemical structures would be incompatible with the same absorbent classes. As such, a list of potentially incompatible absorbents was developed for every reactive group in the database. On the chemical datasheets, the potentially incompatible absorbents listed are not specific to the chemical itself—but rather an indication that one or more of the reactive groups assigned to that chemical record have been known to react with a particular absorbent.
