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、制造业和金属加工业的一个实际问题。废水中低浓度油的存在对分离过程的效率提出了挑战，特别是当油具有粘性、分散性和与水相似的密度时。我们提议通过实验和计算流体动力学建模来研究超疏水/超亲油膜分离分散的水包油污染物的效率。该工艺得益于较低的能量输入和较高的捕油选择性，因此降低了对环境的影响。本研究的结果是设计了油水分离器，并进行了优化设计的实验。由于加拿大普遍存在重油、食品、金属加工和制造业，因此这项研究对加拿大非常感兴趣。注汽开采稠油过程中，每开采1桶沥青需用水约3桶。采出水被少量油污染，如果需要循环利用，应将其分离。我们的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。对于Nexen来说，获得水是至关重要的，因为该公司专注于在沥青砂和页岩油气地层中开发非常规重油/沥青，这些地层都需要水。为了监测和回收废水，Nexen开发和利用了新技术，减少了地表水和淡水的需求，包括在加拿大AB省的SAGD作业和加拿大BC省的页岩作业。离心分离法通常用于从采出水中分离油；然而，它是能源需求和低效率的特点，稀油污染。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合作，该公司希望最终获得技术，在提高采收率后的水处理应用中使用更节能的分离过程。

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.