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

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*** Higgins 9501443 This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project is aimed towards the development of improved methods of treating poorly stabilized (metastable) oil/water emulsions via ceramic crossflow filtration with membranes that are highly resistant to fouling and that have relatively low associated costs. The overall objectives of this program include: (a) development of a more comprehensive and fundamental understanding of membrane fouling processes inherent to crossflow filtration of produced waters and similar feed streams, and their dependence on creamic membrane properties, and (b) development of membranes on low-cost ceramic modules that are highly fouling-resistant. Experimental work will encompass modification and optimization of membrane fabrication approaches scouted in Phase I work, long-term crossflow process testing of membranes on both live and simulated oil/water emulsion streams, and thorough physical and chemical characterization of as-fabricated membranes, fouled membranes, and predominant foulant species. It is anticipated that useful knowledge related to membrane fouling mechanisms and their relationship with ceramic membrane characteristics will result from this program, in addition to commercially viable ceramic membranes that are highly fouling-resistant during metastable oil/water emulsion processing. The highly fouling-resistant membranes to be developed in this program will be readily scalable to industrial-scale low-cost ceramic modules, and should provide significant benefits in both the economy and effectiveness of metastable oil/water emulsion separations. These separations ecompass a wide range of very high volume wastewaters such as produced water from oil wells, desalter bottoms from crude oil washing, shipboard bilge and tank cleaning wastes, vehicle washwaters, and others. Keywords: ceramic membranes, oil/water emulsions, fouling-resistant membranes *** p:/sbir/yhashimi/9501443a.doc