Separation Using Membrane - Water&oil

1.
Introduction of Oil-Water Separation and its application
Oil Water Separation is a process in that are designed to separate gross amounts

of oil and suspended solids from the wastewater effluents of oil refineries,
petrochemical plants, chemical plants, natural gas processing plants and other
industrial oily water sources. For example, in food industry, oil-water separator is
used to separate the residual water from production of palm oil. This helps to purify
the oil product to minimize its water content to the minimum. Diagram 1 shows the
typical oil-water separator that are commonly used in industrial. As shown in the
diagram, mixture that contain water and oil will pass through the system. Oil with
lower density will float towards the top of the tank while water will flow into the
parallel plate. This helps to separate the oil and water.
Figure 1: Oil-Water Separator
However, this system has many disadvantages. First of all, fouling may occur in
the tank due to present of water. Next, the separation process may be slower compare
to membrane separation because it takes time for the oil and water to separate due to
density. Besides, the system is also hard to separate oil-water mixture that is in
emulsion form.
To overcome these problem, smart material can be used as a membrane to

separate oil and water. Membrane separation processes have become an emerging
technology for the treatment of oily wastewater due to high oil removal efficiency and
relatively facile operational process. Besides, smart membrane can also manipulate
the its desire product based on environment stimulus. It is more efficient and effective
compare to the transitional oil-water separation. Some common material that are
normally use as the membrane is PFPA/PDA-coated membrane Cu2S-copper mesh
materials membrane, PVDF/Fe2O3 mixed matrix membrane
4. Preparation of membrane
A smart separation membrane by functionalizing steel mesh membrane with

polydopamine (PDA) and an amphiphilic synthetic copolymer via a feasible mussel-
inspired dip-coating method. This membrane possesses excellent adaptable wettability
and can switch their special oil/water wettability to selectively activate “water-
removing” or “oil-removing” modes for on-demand collection of the desired
component (water or oil) from the oily water, i.e., upon pre-wetting the surfaces with
water or oil. It exhibits outstanding performance in separating various immiscible
oil/water mixtures and miscible surfactant-stabilized emulsions under ambient
pressure. Moreover, the bio-inspired membrane can be regenerated and reused facilely
through simple washing and drying process without loss in performance. The facile
surface functionalization approach developed in this work is universal and substrate-
independent, which can be extended to a variety of materials and membrane systems.
Such universal surface modification method and the novel membrane developed have
great application potential in various engineering and environmental areas including
oil spill cleanup and industrial wastewater treatment.
Figure below shows the steps taken for the synthesis of this smart membrane.
A pristine membrane with cross knitted stainless steel was used as a substrate which
acts as base later for the purpose of grafting polymer onto the substrate. First the
pristine membrane is was immersed in the polydopamine solution. After the
immersion, a PDA-coated membrane is immersed in a polymer to get polymer/PDA-
coated membrane.
5. MECHANISM OF OIL/WATER SEPARATION USING MEMBRANE
Porous membranes with both Superhydrophobic(SHB) and Superoleophilic

(SOL) abilities are typical oil– water separation materials, which can allow oil
permeate while repelling water. Such functional membranes can separate oil from the
oil–water mixture and water-in-oil emulsions. A SHB-SOL membrane usually has a
water contact angle (CA) CA > 150° and a tilting angle <10° (also known as sliding
angle, SA). A hydrophilic surface generally displays oleophilicity because oil
commonly has lower surface tension (≈20–60 mN m−1) than that of water (≈72 mN
m−1). These materials always exhibit an oil contact angle (OCA) > 150° when
immersed in water.
The superhydrophobicity and superoleophobicity of the functionalized membrane. a)

When pre-wetted by oil, the oil can penetrate b) When pre-wetted by water, water can
penetrate.
A hydrophilic surface generally displays oleophilicity because oil commonly has
lower surface tension (≈20–60 mN m−1) than that of water (≈72 mN m−1). A surface
sensitive to a certain external stimulus and then producing a peculiar response, is
defined as smart surfacewettability mechanism, switchable oil–water separation based
on smart membrane surface can be realized by external stimuli, such as light, pH,
temperature, electrical field and magnetic field.
 Before separation, the polymer/PDA- coated membrane was prewet by water
or oil to function at water- removing mode or oil-removing mode.
 The separation efficiency is calculated by the following equation.
 At water removing mode, C0 and Cp are the oil content of the oil/water mixture
before and after separation.
 While at oil removing mode, C0 and Cp are the water content of the oil/water
mixture before and after separation.

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1.

Introduction of Oil-Water Separation and its application

Oil Water Separation is a process in that are designed to separate gross amounts

Figure 1: Oil-Water Separator

To overcome these problem, smart material can be used as a membrane to

A smart separation membrane by functionalizing steel mesh membrane with

Porous membranes with both Superhydrophobic(SHB) and Superoleophilic

The superhydrophobicity and superoleophobicity of the functionalized membrane. a)

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