Novel Bionanocompounds: Outer Membrane Protein A and Laccase Co-Immobilized on Magnetite Nanoparticles for Produced Water Treatment

Abstract

The oil and gas industry generates large amounts of oil-derived effluents such as Heavy Crude Oil (HCO) in water (W) emulsions, which pose a significant remediation and recovery challenge due to their high stability and the presence of environmentally concerning compounds. Nanomaterials emerge as a suitable alternative for the recovery of such effluents, as they can separate them under mild conditions. Additionally, different biomolecules with bioremediation and interfacial capabilities have been explored to functionalize such nanomaterials to improve their performance even further. Here, we put forward the notion of combining these technologies for the simultaneous separation and treatment of O/W effluent emulsions by a novel co-immobilization approach where both OmpA (a biosurfactant) and Laccase (a remediation enzyme) were effectively immobilized on polyether amine (PEA)-modified magnetite nanoparticles (MNPs). The obtained bionanocompounds (i.e., MNP-PEA-OmpA, MNP-PEA-Laccase, and MNP-PEA-OmpA-Laccase) were successfully characterized via DLS, XRD, TEM, TGA, and FTIR. The demulsification of O/W emulsions was achieved by MNP-PEA-OmpA and MNP-PEA-OmpA-Laccase at 5000 ppm. This effect was further improved by applying an external magnetic field to approach HCO removal efficiencies of 81% and 88%, respectively. The degradation efficiencies with these two bionanocompounds reached levels of between 5% and 50% for the present compounds. Taken together, our results indicate that the developed nanoplatform holds significant promise for the efficient treatment of emulsified effluents from the oil and gas industry.

CFD Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment of Continuous Synthesis of Magnetite Nanoparticles Using 2D and 3D Micromixers

“…In general, in addition to providing high shear rates, such systems allow better control of process variables such as temperature, flow rates, residence times, and reagents ratios [79][80][81]. From the mechanistic viewpoint, recent studies have provided additional evidence that correlated the success of these synthesis devices with the control of advection, nucleation, and growth processes [64,82,83]. This high level of control over such phenomena has been thought to directly impact the nucleation and subsequent growth of the nanoparticles.…”

Comparison of Acetaminophen Degradation by Laccases Immobilized by Two Different Methods via a Continuous Flow Microreactor Process Scheme

“…Immobilization or encapsulation can be achieved either by physical adsorption or by covalent bonding. Nanostructured materials such as titania, alumina, silica and magnetite offer rather simplified immobilization routes, high chemical and physical stability, ease of handling, low costs, and relatively high yields [ 10 , 11 , 25 , 26 , 27 ]. In contrast, microencapsulation has been employed extensively as an efficient route to protect or isolate substances from harmful environments [ 28 ], hence, serving as a viable solution for oxidative degradation.…”

Wettability Improvement in Oil–Water Separation by Nano-Pillar ZnO Texturing

“…Among these structural parameters, the diameter of the liquid distributor and the hole shape dominated the oil–water separation. To achieve a high demulsification efficiency, the filtering precision should be improved accordingly [ 28 , 29 ]. For the highly precise filtering materials at the submicron scale, a nanostructured membrane is an ideal candidate to improve separation efficacy [ 30 ].…”