Non-Fouling Ceramic Membranes for Treatment of Metastable Oil/Water Emulsions

9360331希金斯本项目的目标是评估一种适用于这类废水的物理废水处理工艺，即使用新型陶瓷膜的横流超滤(UF)，这种膜经过处理后具有低表面自由能、“无污染”表面。用传统的超滤膜处理亚稳态水包油型乳状液会导致膜的快速污染和通量下降，而且由于这个问题通常是不经济的。将使用低成本、高比表面积的支撑物对具有改性、低能量表面的陶瓷超滤膜进行评估。所得到的膜组件将使用不同类型的合成亚稳水包油乳状液进行过滤性能评估。这些实验的目标将是确定首选的膜改性技术，并展示表面改性膜在生产基本上不含碳氢化合物的渗透液的同时保持高、稳定渗透通量水平的能力。这是一项第一阶段的奖励，基于响应NSF 93-18，小型企业创新研究(SBIR)计划征集而提交的提案，涉及一类废水、亚稳态油水乳状液和类似的废水，这些废水需要更具成本效益的处理，并且全国范围内的流量很大。目前对亚稳态油/水乳状液的处理技术往往是无效的，这种未得到充分处理的废流的处置会造成水资源的严重损害。如果将被评估的膜开发并集成到生产规模的膜组件中，将成为低资本和低运营成本的含油废水处理系统的关键要素。这项技术的应用包括那些废流量极高的领域，例如来自油井的产出水和炼油厂原油洗涤产生的海水淡化底部。

9360331 Higgins The objective of this project is to evaluate a physical wastewater treatment process applicable to such waste streams; namely, crossflow ultrafiltration (UF) using novel ceramic membranes that are treated to have low-surface-free-energy, "non- fouling" surfaces. Processing of metastable oil-in-water emulsions with conventional UF membranes leads to rapid membrane fouling and flux decline and is generally uneconomic because of this problem. Ceramic UF membranes with modified, low-energy surfaces will be evaluated using low-cost, high-surface-area supports. The resulting membrane modules will be evaluated for filtration properties using different types of synthetic metastable oil-in-water emulsions. The objectives of these experiments will be definition of preferred membrane modification techniques and demonstration of the capability of surface- modified membranes to maintain high, stable permeate flux levels while producing a substantially hydrocarbon-free permeate. This is a Phase I award based on a proposal submitted in response to NSF 93-18, Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program Solicitation, addresses a class of wastewaters, metastable oil/water emulsions and similar waste streams for which a need exists for more cost-effective treatment and for which the flows on a national scale are large. Current treatment technologies for metastable oil/water emulsions are often ineffective, and substantial impairment of water resources results from disposal of such inadequately treated waste streams. The membranes to be evaluated, if developed and integrated within a production scale membrane module would be the key element in an oily wastewater treatment system with low capital and operating costs. Applications for this technology include those with extremely high waste flows, such as produced water from oil wells and desalter bottoms from crude oil washing at refineries.