CFD modeling and experimental studies on separation of dispersed oil contaminations from wastewater, using hydrophobic/oleophilic membranes

从废水中分离稀油污染物是石油、食品、制造业和金属加工工业中的实际问题。废水中低浓度油的存在对分离过程的效率提出了挑战，特别是当油是粘性的、分散的并且具有与水类似的密度时。我们建议调查效率的超疏水/超亲油膜分离 ** 分散的油在水中的污染物，使用实验和计算流体动力学建模。** 过程受益于较低的能量输入和较高的油捕获选择性，因此，降低了 ** 对环境的影响。本研究之成果为设计油水分离器，并以最佳设计进行实验。由于重油、食品、金属加工和制造业的普遍存在，加拿大对这项研究非常感兴趣。在通过蒸汽注入的重油开采过程中，** 每桶沥青需要约3桶水。产出水被少量油污染，如果需要回收，则应将其分离。我们的公司合作伙伴尼克森是一家加拿大公司，通过对环境负责的工艺投资开发碳氢化合物储量。由于公司专注于在焦油砂和页岩油/天然气地层中开发非常规 ** 重油/沥青，因此获得水资源对Nexen至关重要。通过努力对废水进行监测/回收，尼克森开发/利用了新技术，减少了 ** 地表水和淡水需求，包括加拿大AB的SAGD作业和加拿大BC ** 的页岩作业。常规地使用絮凝来从采出水分离油;然而，其需要能量并且对于稀油污染物具有低效率。尼克森探索创新技术 **，以减少水足迹，降低能源和环境影响。通过与纪念大学的研究团队建立合作伙伴关系，该公司希望最终获得该技术，以便在EOR后水处理应用中使用更节能的分离工艺。

Separating dilute oil contaminations from wastewater is a practical problem in petroleum, food, manufacturing**and metal processing industries. The presence of low concentration oil in the wastewater challenges the**efficiency of separation process, especially when the oil is viscous, dispersed and with a density similar to**water. We propose to investigate the efficiency of superhydrophobic/superoleophilic membranes to separate**dispersed oil-in-water contaminations, using experiments and computational fluid dynamics modeling. The**process benefits from a lower energy input and a higher oil capture selectivity, therefore, lowering the**environmental impacts. The outcome from this research is to design oil-water separator and to conduct**experiments with the optimal design. This research is of great interest to Canada due to the prevalence of heavy**oil, food, metal processing and manufacturing industries. In the heavy oil recovery process by steam injection,**about 3 barrels of water per one barrel of bitumen are required. The produced water is contaminated with small**quantity of oil, which should be separated if recycling is desired. Our company partner, Nexen, is a Canadian**company that invests on the development of hydrocarbon reserves through environmentally responsible**processes. Access to water is critical for Nexen due to the focus of the company on developing unconventional**heavy oil/bitumen in tar sands and shale oil/gas formations, which are water demanding. Efforts to**monitor/recycle the used water has resulted Nexen in developing/ utilizing new technologies with decreased**surface and fresh water demand, including in SAGD operations in AB, Canada and in operations in shales in**BC, Canada. Centrifugation is conventionally used to separate oil from produced water; however, it is energy**demanding and features a low efficiency for dilute oil contaminations. Nexen explores innovative technologies**to reduce the water footprint with lower energy and environmental impacts. Through engaging partnership with**research teams at the Memorial University, the company hopes to ultimately obtain the technology to use a**more energy-efficient separation process for their post EOR water treatment applications.