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

这个小型企业创新研究二期项目旨在开发改进的方法，通过陶瓷交叉流过滤膜处理稳定性差（亚稳）的油/水乳液，这种膜具有很强的抗污染能力，并且相关成本相对较低。该项目的总体目标包括：(a)对产水和类似饲料流的横流过滤所固有的膜污染过程及其对陶瓷膜特性的依赖有更全面和更基本的了解，以及(b)在低成本陶瓷模块上开发具有高抗污性的膜。实验工作将包括修改和优化第一阶段工作中发现的膜制造方法，在活的和模拟的油/水乳化液流中对膜进行长期的横流过程测试，并对制备膜、污染膜和主要污染物进行彻底的物理和化学表征。预计该项目将产生有关膜污染机制及其与陶瓷膜特性之间关系的有用知识，以及在亚稳油/水乳液处理过程中具有高度抗污染性能的商业可行陶瓷膜。在这个项目中开发的高抗污膜将很容易扩展到工业规模的低成本陶瓷模块，并且应该在亚稳油/水乳液分离的经济性和有效性方面提供显着的好处。这些分离涵盖了大量的废水，如油井的采出水、原油洗涤产生的脱盐底部、船上舱底和舱底清洗废物、车辆洗涤水等。关键词：陶瓷膜，油/水乳液，耐污膜*** p:/sbir/yhashimi/9501443 .doc

*** 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