In situ oils/organic solvents cleanup and recovery using advanced oil-water separation system

Chemosphere
Abdelnasser AbidliChul B Park

Abstract

Removing contaminants from wastewater is critical towards resolving global water pollution problems. However, the variety of oily contaminants composition, and the unsatisfactory performance and efficiency of current separation systems are still big challenges, thus developing efficient and scalable oil-water separation (OWS) methods is needed. Here, the performance of a novel pilot-scale oil-water separator skimmer (OWSS) prototype is fully investigated using an upflow fixed bed column system packed with polypropylene (PP) fibrous sorbent materials for dual continuous OWS and in situ oils/organic solvents recovery. The mechanism of oil sorption by the PP fibrous sorbents, as well as capillary and vacuum assisted oil flow within the inter-fiber voids is fully explored. A series of pilot-scale column experiments were performed with different bed heights (7.5-30 cm) and using different types of oil/solvent in order to determine their influence on the oil flux, OWS efficiency and recovered organic solvent purity. The OWSS provided excellent and stable performance. A trade-off relationship between oil flux and OWS efficiency can be obtained: The maximum flux was attained at the lowest sorbent bed height (7.5 cm), while the maximum ...Continue Reading

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