An experimental study on oil absorbent was conducted to investigate the feasibility of utilizing absorbents in oil separation from water-oil mixture for spilt oil recovery. Experiments included investigations of absorptivity and filtering performance of a commercial oil absorbent for different diesel oil concentrations. The measured average absorptivity of the absorbent was above 92% for oil concentrations, 10.15vol% that shows good absorbing performance. Filtering the oil-water mixture, however, was too slow to be used for oil separation. An absorbent baffle system was suggested for oil separation which collects oil particles by increasing contact between the absorbent and oil particles.