Acceleration of floc-water separation and floc reduction with magnetic nanoparticles during demulsification of complex waste cutting emulsions

Waste cutting emulsions are difficult to treat efficiently owing to their complex composition and stable emulsified structure.As an important treatment method for emulsions,chemical demulsification is faced with challenges such as low flocs-water separation rates and high sludge production.Hence,in this study,Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles(MNPs)were used to enhance chemical demulsification performance for treating waste cutting emulsions under a magnetic field.The addition of MNPs significantly decreased the time required to attain sludge-water separation and sludge compression equilibrium,from 210 to 20 min.In addition,the volume percentage of sludge produced at the equilibrium state was reduced from 45% to 10%.This excellent flocculation-separation performance was stable over a pH range of 3-11.The magnetization of the flocculants and oil droplets to form a flocculant-MNP-oil droplet composite,and the magnetic transfer of the composite were two key processes that enhanced the separation of cutting emulsions.Specifically,the interactions among MNPs,flocculants,and oil droplets were important in the magnetization process,which was controlled by the structures and properties of the three components.Under the magnetic field,the magnetized flocculant-MNP-oil droplet composites were considerably accelerated and separated from water,and the sludge was simultaneously compressed.Thus,this study expands the applicability of magnetic separation techniques in the treatment of complex waste cutting emulsions.

Application of waste frying oils in the biosynthesis of biodemulsifier by a demulsifying strain Alcaligenes sp.S-XJ-1

Exploration of biodemulsifiers has become a new research aspect.Using waste frying oils（WFOs） as carbon source to synthesize biodemulsifiers has a potential prospect to decrease production cost and to improve the application of biodemulsifiers in the oilfield.In this study,a demulsifying strain,Alcaligenes sp.S-XJ-1,was investigated to synthesize a biodemulsifier using waste frying oils as carbon source.It was found that the increase of initial pH of culture medium could increase the biodemulsifier yield but decrease the demulsification ratio compared to that using paraffin as carbon source.In addition,a biodemulsifier produced by waste frying oils and paraffin as mixed carbon source had a lower demulsification capability compared with that produced by paraffin or waste frying oil as sole carbon source.Fed-batch fermentation of biodemulsifier using waste frying oils as supplementary carbon source was found to be a suitable method.Mechanism of waste frying oils utilization was studied by using tripalmitin,olein and tristearin as sole carbon sources to synthesize biodemulsifier.The results showed saturated long-chain fatty acid was diffcult for S-XJ-1 to utilize but could effectively enhance the demulsification ability of the produced biodemulsifier.Moreover,FT-IR result showed that the demulsification capability of biodemulsifiers was associated with the content of C=O group and nitrogen element.

Coupling magnetic particles with flocculants to enhance demulsification and separation of waste cutting emulsion for engineering applications

Magnetic particles were coupled with a flocculant to enhance the demulsification and separation of waste cutting emulsions.The optimal magnetic particle size and critical magnetic field conditions were investigated to achieve large-scale engineering application of magnetic demulsification separation for waste cutting emulsion treatment.The micro-scale magnetic particles were found to show comparable effects to nano-scale magnetic particles on enhancing the demulsification and separation of cutting emulsions,which are beneficial for broadening the selectivity of low-cost magnetic particles.The critical magnetic separation region was determined to be an area 40 mm from the magnetic field source.Compared to the flocculant demulsification,the magnetic demulsification separation exhibited a significant advantage in accelerating flocs-water separation by decreasing the separation time of flocs from 180-240 min to less than 15 min,compressing the flocs by reducing the floc volume ratio from 60%-90%to lower than 20%,and showing excellent adaptability to the variable properties of waste cutting emulsions.Coupled with the design of the magnetic disk separator,continuous demulsification separation of the waste cutting emulsion was achieved at 1.0 t/hr for at least 10 hr to obtain clear effluent with 81%chemical oxygen demand removal and 89%turbidity reduction.This study demonstrates the feasibility of applying magnetic demulsification separation to large-scale continuous treatment of waste emulsion.Moreover,it addresses the flocs-water separation problems that occur in practical flocculant demulsification engineering applications.

Hydrophilic/underwater superoleophobic graphene oxide membrane intercalated by TiO2 nanotubes for oil/water separation

Membrane technology for oil/water separation has received increasing attention in recent years. In this study, the hydrophilic/underwater superoleophobic membrane with enhanced water permeability and antifouling ability were fabricated by synergistically assembling graphene oxide （GO） nanosheets and titanium dioxide （TiO2） nanotubes for oil/water separation. GO/TiO2 membrane exhibits hydrophilic and underwater superoleophobic properties with water contact angle of 62° and under water oil contact angle of 162.8°. GO/TiO2 membrane shows greater water permeability with the water flux up to 531 L/ （m^2·h·bar）, which was more than 5 times that of the pristine GO membrane. Moreover, GO/TiO2 membrane had excellent oil/water separation efficiency and anti-oil-fouling capability, as oil residual in filtrate after separation was below 5 mg/L and flux recovery ratios were over 80%.The results indicate that the intercalation of TiO2 nanotubes into adjacent GO nanosheets enlarged the channel structure and modified surface topography of the obtained GO/TiO2 membranes, which improved the hydrophilicity, permeability and anti-oil-fouling ability of the membranes, enlightening the great prospects of GO/TiO2 membrane in oil-water treatment.

Destructing surfactant network in nanoemulsions by positively charged magnetic nanorods to enhance oil-water separation

The separation of ultrafine oil droplets from wasted nanoemulsions stabilized with high concentration of surfactants is precondition for oil reuse and the safe discharge of effluent.However, the double barriers of the interfacial film and network structures formed by surfactants in nanoemulsions significantly impede the oil-water separation. To destroy these surfactant protective layers, we proposed a newly-developed polyethyleneimine micelle template approach to achieve simultaneous surface charge manipulation and morphology transformation of magnetic nanospheres to magnetic nanorods. The results revealed that positively charged magnetic nanospheres exhibited limited separation performance of nanoemulsions, with a maximum chemical oxygen demand(COD) removal of 50%, whereas magnetic nanorods achieved more than 95% COD removal in less than 30 s. The magnetic nanorods were also applicable to wasted nanoemulsions from different sources and exhibited excellent resistance to wide pH changes. Owing to their unique one-dimensional structure, the interfacial dispersion of magnetic nanorods was significantly promoted, leading to the efficient capture of surfactants and widespread destruction of both the interfacial film and network structure, which facilitated droplet merging into the oil phase. The easy-toprepare and easy-to-tune strategy in this study paves a feasible avenue to simultaneously tailor surface charge and morphology of magnetic nanoparticles, and reveals the huge potential of morphology manipulation for producing high-performance nanomaterials to be applied in complex interfacial interaction process. We believe that the newly-developed magnetic-nanorods significantly contribute to hazardous oily waste remediation and advances technology evolution toward problematic oil-pollution control.