The Separation of Hydrocarbons from Contaminated Sand Using Ionic Liquids

技术摘要：该奖项是由快速研究反应计划资助的。这项拟议的研究旨在开发一种使用离子液体(ILS)从受污染的沙子中分离石油和焦油的工艺。墨西哥湾正在发生的灾难将对许多海滩造成灾难性的影响。此外，正在修建沙堤和屏障，以保护脆弱的湿地。将有大量受污染的沙子需要处理。最初的计划似乎涉及到在指定的垃圾填埋场和泻湖进行储存。处理这种材料和清理受污染的沙子既是一个紧迫的、紧迫的需要，也是一个需要及时做出反应的长期问题。宾夕法尼亚州立大学的初步工作最近表明，ILS可以用来从焦油或油砂中分离沥青。沥青是一种复杂的材料，由大小不等的分子组成。被冲到海滩上的石油通常会失去它的“轻”或挥发性成分，留下重油或焦油球的淤泥，主要由低聚和聚合碳氢化合物组成。目前用于从沙子中分离石油、沥青或焦油的方法昂贵或对环境构成挑战(例如，从加拿大沥青砂中提取沥青所使用的热水或温水工艺)。分离在室温下进行，在初始分离过程中不需要使用水(废水处理是油砂或沥青砂行业的一个大问题)。基本上，所有的沥青都是以非常干净的形式回收的。在用少量(冷水)去除残留的IL后，矿物质(砂)也以未受污染的形式被回收。初步但未发表的工作表明，这一过程对被石油污染的沙子和在“老化”过程中形成的风化和硬化的聚合物碳氢化合物同样有效。拟议的研究将确定适当的选择IL、共溶剂的比例(以降低污泥和焦油的粘度以便于分离)、分离动力学等，以实现碳氢化合物与沙子的清洁分离，使前者处于适合输送到炼油厂的状态，而后者可用于环境修复。将建造一个台式分离装置，以确定大规模工艺所需的操作参数。虽然拟议的工作是以应用为导向的，但预计技术演示将导致新的基础科学，如了解ILS、矿物和碳氢化合物之间的相互作用，以及这如何影响相行为和分离过程。对这些过程的洞察形成了该提议的智力价值。非技术摘要：该奖项由快速研究反应计划资助。这项拟议的研究旨在开发一种使用离子液体(ILS)从受污染的沙子中分离石油和焦油的工艺。墨西哥湾正在发生的灾难将对许多海滩造成灾难性的影响。此外，正在修建沙堤和屏障，以保护脆弱的湿地。将有大量受污染的沙子需要处理。最初的计划似乎涉及到在指定的垃圾填埋场和泻湖进行储存。处理这种材料，清理被污染的沙子，既是一个紧迫的、紧迫的需要，也是一个需要及时应对的长期问题。宾夕法尼亚州立大学最近的初步工作表明，ILS可用于从焦油或油砂中分离沥青。如果该项目成功实施，除了对墨西哥湾海滩的直接潜在影响外，还将产生更广泛的影响，因为将石油与沙子或其他矿物分离不仅是环境灾难后清理沙子和土壤的一种新颖且可能极其有效的方式，而且对其他地区也很重要。这些措施的例子包括从犹他州的沥青砂中提取沥青和沥青；清理油井作业中获得的产品流中的沙子；从钻井泥浆中分离石油；以及处理炼油厂作业中产生的大量所谓油泥。

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT: This award is funded under the Rapid Research Response program. The proposed research is aimed at developing a process to separate oil and tar from contaminated sand using ionic liquids (ILs). The catastrophe now unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico will have a disastrous effect on many beaches. In addition, sand berms and barriers are being built to protect fragile wetlands. There will be large quantities of contaminated sand that will need to be treated. Initial plans appear to involve storage in designated landfills and lagoons. Treating this material and cleaning contaminated sand is both an urgent, immediate need and long-term problem that requires a timely response.In preliminary work at Penn State it has been shown very recently that ILs can be used to separate bitumen from tar or oil sands. Bitumen is a complex material consisting of molecules that range in size from small to polymeric. Oil that is washed onto beaches has usually lost its "light" or volatile fraction, leaving a sludge of heavy oil or tar balls that largely consist of oligomeric and polymeric hydrocarbons. Present methods used to separate oil, bitumen or tar from sand are expensive or environmentally challenging (e.g., the hot or warm water process used to obtain bitumen from Canadian tar sands).Bitumen can be extracted from tar sands using ILs alone or in conjunction with a non-polar solvent. The separation occurs at room temperature and does not require the use of water in the initial separation process (the disposal of waste process water is a big problem in the oil or tar sands industry). Essentially all of the bitumen is recovered in a very clean form. The minerals (sand) are also recovered in an uncontaminated form after removing residual IL with small amounts of (cold) water. Preliminary but unpublished work has shown that this process works equally well with both oil-contaminated sand and the weathered and hardened polymeric hydrocarbons formed during "ageing". The proposed research will establish the appropriate choice of IL, proportions of co-solvent (to lower the viscosity of the sludge and tar to facilitate separation), kinetics of separation, etc., necessary to obtain a clean separation of hydrocarbons from sand, such that the former is in a state suitable for delivery to a refinery and the latter can be used for environmental remediation. A bench-top separation unit will be built in order to determine the operating parameters necessary for a large-scale process. Although the proposed work is application-motivated, it is anticipated that a technology demonstration will lead to new fundamental science such as an understanding of the interactions between ILs, minerals, and hydrocarbons, and how this affects phase behavior and separation processes. Obtaining an insight into these processes forms the intellectual merit of the proposal.NON-TECHNICAL ABSTRACT:This award is funded under the Rapid Research Response program. The proposed research is aimed at developing a process to separate oil and tar from contaminated sand using ionic liquids (ILs). The catastrophe now unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico will have a disastrous effect on many beaches. In addition, sand berms and barriers are being built to protect fragile wetlands. There will be large quantities of contaminated sand that will need to be treated. Initial plans appear to involve storage in designated landfills and lagoons. Treating this material and cleaning contaminated sand is both an urgent, immediate need and long-term problem that requires a timely response. In very recent preliminary work at Penn State it has been shown that ILs can be used to separate bitumen from tar or oil sands. In addition to the immediate potential impact on the Gulf beaches if this project is successful and adopted, there also will be broader impacts, in that the separation of oil from sand or other minerals is not only a novel and potentially extremely effective way of cleaning sand and soils after an environmental disaster, but also important in other areas. Examples of these are extracting bitumen and asphalt from Utah tar sands; cleaning sand that is part of the product stream obtained in oil well operations; separating oil from drilling muds; and treating the large amounts of so-called oily sludge generated in refinery operations.