Crises are events which, in the most fundamental way, affect modern societies, endanger human lives, economies and social values. They are demarcated by wide-spread uncertainties and high stakes, as well as serious restrictions in the time available for analysis and reaction (1). Crises lead to severe consequences for societies and organizations (2). They usually occur due to various causes, such as natural catastrophes (earthquakes, wildfires, dust storms and extreme colds), technical and technological catastrophes (process fires, explosions, and leakages of toxic substances) or humanitarian actions (acts of terrorism, sabotages, violence, and strikes). Regardless of the cause of crises, each company or organization have to have a specific system of crisis management for minimizing property loss and loss of human life (3–5).

Nowadays in complex societies, management of wide-spread crises involves an enormous number of sectors, organizations, and individuals, which each have their own cultures, characteristics, assignments, and goals (1, 6, 7).

Industrial branches are complicated due to the number of elements/components, degree of uncertainty and a high degree of interaction between components (8). Taking into account that the creation of crises cannot be avoided, companies with operations involving a high level of risk have to find ways how to manage crises caused by their activity (9). Crisis management therefore has a large significance in these complex systems, because it helps mitigate the consequences of these large accidents and catastrophes (10).

Therefore, a crisis arises when the demands of the triggering event exceed the ability of a company, community, or organization to react, which leads to an endangerment of its continuation. Crisis management is then considered a “process of preparing for, reacting to and learning from the effects of a wide spectrum of large failings, which have an impact on groups of people, from organizations up to local, national and international communities” (11).

During crises, agility, and adaptability of these components of crisis management is decisive for the achievement of an efficient and effective reaction (12, 13) Incidents and catastrophes have broader, more long-term effects, which means that companies have to constantly adapt to challenges created by these effects and react to them (14).

A system of crisis management includes four phases: mitigation, readiness, reaction, renewal (15). The mitigation phase regards an effort to prevent future events/threats or to minimize their unfavorable effects. The readiness phase relates to an ability of a system to predict future events/threats and to offer the desired resources (16). The reaction phase is connected with an ability of a system to react to crises and to face unforeseen situations (17). Finally, the renewal phase regards proceedings necessary for a return to a normal state after the crisis occurs (16).

Based on sources about emergency readiness, crisis management consists of four correlated factors: prevention, preparation, reaction, revision (18). These factors are included in the commonly used three-stage approach, which describes crisis management as encompassing three phases. Before-crisis phase (prevention and preparation), crisis phase (reaction) and after-crisis phase (learning and repeating) (18).Currently, more and more studies are being carried out to assess the risks and determine their negative consequences on humans, with a quantitative assessment of the resulting consequeances (19, 20).

The final goal of a crisis management system is to be ready to solve disruptive incidents or critical situations in a rapid, appropriate and adequate manner (21). To minimize the effect of accidents and mitigate the unfavorable effects of emergency situations, systems of crisis management play an important role in managing emergency situations (22). In companies working with dangerous substances, preparing for crisis situations is essential. As several authors state, it is necessary to predict the scope of a possible negative event and to subsequently allocate adequate material to it, that will ensure absorption of a possible escaped substance (23). In the case of an escape of a liquid, sorbents are one of the possible solutions.

Sorbents are solids used in the separation of components from liquid mixtures (liquids and gases). They are classified according to chemical composition, structure (bulk, textile), origin (natural, synthetic), ability to sorb polar or non-polar compounds and chemicals. Natural adsorbents (sawdust, peat, sand, powdered sulphur, coal dust, etc.) have a lower absorption capacity compared to synthetic ones. Adsorption is considered to be the most widely used and safe environmental protection in the event of a spill of a hazardous substance. The concept of green adsorbents has been introduced to increase the safety of sorbent use, which means the recovery of cheap materials derived from, for example, agricultural waste (24, 25). Clay, whose sorption advantages have been investigated in several studies, can also be considered as a suitable and sustainable source of sorbents and has been shown to be effective in the sorption of radionuclides. Clays are widely regarded as suitable natural sorbents for wastewater decontamination and as a potential barrier in landfills to prevent and stop the leaching of radioactive material/radionuclides into bedrock and groundwater (26, 27). In the event of a spill into water, further response by emergency responders is required to prevent water toxicity, whereupon other special sorbents can be used, but the purpose may not be entirely effective (28–30).

Water pollution is a problem for human populations and also threatens ecosystems and habitats around the world. Contaminants in the environment may look unsightly and smell bad, but their negative impact goes beyond aesthetics. Some pollutants resist decomposition and accumulate in the food chain. These pollutants can be eaten or absorbed by fish and wildlife, and in turn can be consumed by humans. If water pollution causes algal blooms in a lake or marine environment, the proliferation of newly introduced nutrients stimulates plant and algal growth. This in turn reduces oxygen levels in the water and the lack of oxygen, known as eutrophication, smothers plants and animals which can create ‘dead zones’ where the waters are essentially devoid of life. In certain cases, these harmful algal blooms can produce neurotoxins that affect wildlife (31, 32). Therefore, an initial response with sorbets is needed to prevent the hazardous substance from coming into contact with the water or the environment.

Bulk sorbents are solids of different chemical compositions. They are designed to have the largest possible surface area, particularly suitable for removing thin layers of liquids over a large area. Their disadvantage is dustiness. Their use causes clogging (dusting) of the environment. On the other hand, they have long-term storage limits, being stored in bales. Also, the manipulation of these sorbents can cause occupational injuries during their application. For these reasons, such sorbents may not always be suitable for industrial plants and tend to be replaced by fabric sorbents. Therefore, their sorption properties should also be investigated, which contributes to a more effective response to potential spills of hazardous substances (33–36).

Textile sorbents absorb a substance on the basis of adhesion of the spilled liquid to the surface of the sorption material. They are demarcated by their ability to soak the escaped substance up in amounts that are many times larger than their own mass. They are made of polypropylene (PP) microfibers with a special property in regard to the kind of textile sorbent. Hydrophobic sorbents, as their name suggests, repel water. They are mainly used in leakages of substances on the surface of water. Thanks to their hydrophobia, they can float on the surface of water and mainly absorb escaped substances (in case of the escaped substance having a lower density than water, and therefore coating the surface of the water) (37). Universal sorption mats, similar to chemical mats, mainly bind water.

Universal sorption mats can be divided according to their ability to bind chemical substances into chemical, hydrophobic and universal ones. Each of these three groups has a typical color associated with it for an easy recognition of the sorbent (38).

Hydrophobic sorbents, as their name suggests, repel water. They are mainly used in leakages of substances on the surface of water. Thanks to their hydrophobiac nature of the sorbent, they can float on the surface of water and mainly absorb escaped substances (if the escaped substance has a lower density than water, and therefore coats the surface of the water). Hydrophobic sorption mats are predominantly of a white color (Figure 1A). Hydrophobic sorbents are made of polypropylene (PP) microfibers, thanks to which they are light-weight, even after a full soakage they do not fall to the bottom of the water container. Aside from lightness, microfibers also provide a high sorption capacity and escaped substances stay bound to the sorbent for a long time, do not spontaneously unbind, but should the need arise, the sorbate can be partially recovered (38). A hydrophobic sorbent can bind/absorb non-polar oil liquids. The hydrophobic sorbent does not bind water into its structure and therefore can float on the surface, it is usually used as a mat, floating barrage, and a sorption coil (39, 40).

Chemical sorbents are used mainly for the sorption of aggressive liquid chemical substances, such as hydroxides and concentrated acids. Chemical textile mats are often of a pink or yellow color (Figure 1B). Chemical textile sorbents are used in many different chemical laboratories or chemical plants, but they also appear in the equipment of emergency kits used by firefighting and emergency forces. The production of chemical textile mats is supplemented by a special hydrophilic modification of polypropylene (later just PP) microfibers. This modification influences their high resistance to aggressive chemical substances. Thanks to polypropylene they are highly resistant to abrasion, which allows for a simple manipulation after the sorption finishes. Similar to hydrophobic sorbents, they are demarcated by their high sorption capacity (Table 1) (39).

Universal sorbents, as their name already gives away, can be used universally, but they are not hydrophobic. They bind weak acids and water solutions, emulsions of fat, oil, and oil substances. A universal sorption of substances is facilitated by their composition. They are used in plants where various kinds of liquid substances are utilized. Universal sorption mats are usually of a gray color (Figure 1C).

Both chemical and universal sorbents are hydrophilic sorbents, materials that can bind water, hence both polar and non-polar liquids, to their hard surfaces. They are used in capturing dangerous substances – liquids- on a solid surface (44, 45).

The aim of the article is an assessment of the risk of dangerous substance leakage in an industrial accident on a company’s premises and a description of resources for effective capture of an escaped dangerous substance. After the acceptance of risks of dangerous substance escape follows a description and analysis of the application of textile sorption materials for a quick and effective capture of escaped substances, given polar and non-polar liquids, as a reaction to the arisen situation. At the same time, the goal is to establish the adsorption capacity of the given textile sorption materials by two different methodical approaches.

The research of textile sorption materials is focused on observing:

The chosen experiment has stated the time of sorption in its methodology. The aim was to observe sorption capacity. Experimental results from individual methodical approaches are significantly comparable (Tables 4, 5).

In today’s constantly evolving age connected with a large amount of technological devices we are at all times exposed to a rising risk of extreme events arising. One of the possible extreme events is the escape of a dangerous substance from the site of a company that manipulates it. To mitigate the negative impact of such an event, different sorbents are used in industrial companies. The article was focused on textile sorbents, which can, owing to their sorption ability, allow the elimination or mitigation of a negative impact of a possible accident in the company connected with an escape of a liquid dangerous substance. These sorbents were tested and compared with the established values. Based on the obtained results it is possible to state that sorption capacities of the chemical and universal mat for the substrate water are equal and consistent with the data given by the manufacturer. Textile sorption mats also have a comparable sorption capacity. The sorption capacity on the substrate gasoline is the same in all textile sorbents. All compared sorption mats meet the criteria of the “environmentally suitable product” label. An important finding is the maximum sorption output of the mats, which reached up to 60 s, after which the sorption capacity values remain unchanged, which we consider as a novelty in our research. This fact is very important in the case of emergency services intervention, because this fact is not mentioned by the manufacturers. The responding forces need to know that the said material only performs its task for 60 s. If it does not absorb the entire volume of the spilled liquid within 60 s, it has to be replaced by a new sorbent. Based on the findings it is necessary to adopt further measures to eliminate negative impact in the case of an escape of a dangerous substance that lasts longer than the aforementioned period of time.

The application of the above materials remains relevant. The production, transport and use of hazardous substances remains a part of life and the risk of release of these materials is permanently present. It is necessary to search for suitable sorption materials for the capture of leaked chemicals with the highest possible sorption capacity value, possibly in the manner presented by us.

We are looking for means to quickly and efficiently capture leaked hazardous substances through internationally recognized testing methods. Further research is needed in this topic, as well as above mentioned testing methods in terms of the amount of sample tested and the specific procedure in order to obtain data that would be usable by emergency services (e.g., firefighters) in dealing with the situation.

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

IM: Conceptualization, Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. JK: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. ZŠ: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Validation, Writing – original draft. KP: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.