Center for Membranes and Advanced Water Technology (CMAT), Department of Chemical Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 127788, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Sanitary Environmental Engineering Division (SEED), Department of Civil Engineering, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II #132, 84084, Fisciano (SA), Italy.
Chemosphere. 2021 Jun;273:129684. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.129684. Epub 2021 Jan 19.
Produced water, a by-product generated from the oil and gas extraction processes, represents a major challenge in the oil and gas industry as it is generally characterized with a very high salinity and oil content. Currently used ceramic membranes for oil-water separation suffer from the low water flux in spite of their several distinctive advantages. To overcome this limitation and to increase the water flux and oil rejection, commercial ceramic TiO membranes were dip coated with silica (SiO) nanoparticles at different concentrations of 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, and 1.0 wt %. Coated membranes were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive x-ray sSpectroscopy (EDS), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Raman Spectroscopy and contact angle. Results showed that SiO nanoparticles were successfully deposited on the surface of the ceramic membranes confirming the dip coating approach. Furthermore, water flux of 817, 2724, 3636, 627, and 1292 L m h (LMH) was reported at control, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1.0 wt%; respectively. Also, contact angle reported 75°, 50°, 40°, 24°, 0° at control, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1.0 wt%; respectively. Finally, total organic carbon (TOC) in the treated water samples reported 100, 28, 11, 9, 10, 13 mg L at control, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1.0 wt%, respectively. This study can be a preliminary to further studies that accommodate industry-like conditions to help decrease the gap between ideal laboratory setups and harsh real life conditions to fully optimize and exploit the advantages of ceramic membranes in oil-water separation.
产出水是石油和天然气开采过程中的一种副产物，其具有高盐度和含油的特点，这对石油和天然气行业来说是一个主要的挑战。目前用于油水分离的陶瓷膜尽管具有许多独特的优点，但水通量较低。为了克服这一限制，提高水通量和油的去除率，商业陶瓷 TiO2 膜在不同浓度（0.25、0.50、0.75 和 1.0wt%）的 SiO2 纳米粒子中进行了浸涂。采用扫描电子显微镜（SEM）、能谱（EDS）、傅里叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）和拉曼光谱以及接触角对涂层膜进行了表征。结果表明，SiO2 纳米粒子成功地沉积在陶瓷膜的表面上，证实了浸涂方法。此外，在对照、0.25、0.50、0.75 和 1.0wt%下，水通量分别为 817、2724、3636、627 和 1292LMH。同样，接触角分别为 75°、50°、40°、24°和 0°。最后，在对照、0.25、0.50、0.75 和 1.0wt%下，处理后水样中的总有机碳（TOC）分别为 100、28、11、9、10、13mg/L。本研究可为进一步研究提供初步依据，这些研究将容纳类似工业的条件，以帮助缩小理想实验室设置与恶劣实际条件之间的差距，从而充分优化和利用陶瓷膜在油水分离中的优势。
