Separation of oil from oily wastewater using low cost ceramic membrane

Membrane separation as a pre-treatment process for oily saline water

“…Table 11 Advantages and disadvantages of ceramic membranes as compared to polymeric membranes [410]. Oily water is typically treated using MF [411], UF [412], and NF [413] ceramic membranes. MF membranes were also used to separate oil, grease and suspended solids from produced water [269].…”

Preparation of fouling‐resistant and self‐cleaning PVDF membrane via surface‐initiated atom transfer radical polymerization for emulsified oil/water separation

“…According to annual reports, a high amount of oily wastewater is produced from different industries, such as the oil and gas industry, petrochemical industry, and oil refinery industry, which causes serious environmental problems yearly . In general, the oil in wastewater contains dispersed oil, free oil, dissolved oil, and emulsified oil.…”

Preparation of a Porous, Sintered and Reaction-Bonded Si3N4 (SRBSN) Planar Membrane for Filtration of an Oil-in-Water Emulsion with High Flux Performance

“…The rapid growth in industrial production, such as that in oil and gas petroleum refineries and the pharmaceutical, metallurgical, fertilizer, and petrochemical industries, has inevitably led to an increase in the generation of oily wastewater in the form of an oil-in-water emulsion, which has a concentration that usually ranges between 50 and 1000 mg/L [ 1 , 2 ]. The direct discharge of these emulsions to the environment is obviously not safe for human or aquatic life [ 3 ].…”

“…Thus, it is almost impossible to separate the oil phase by methods which merely apply gravity [ 4 , 5 ]. Several technologies, such as coagulation, flocculation, air flotation, chemical de-emulsification, ultrasonic separation, and membrane filtration, are often used for oil removal [ 1 , 6 ]. An emerging technology that has attracted increasing attention in the treatment of oily wastewater is the membrane separation process, as it is environmentally friendly, contributes to energy conservation, and displays high separation efficiency [ 5 , 7 , 8 ].…”

“…On the other hand, ceramic membranes are sufficiently good for industrial applications because they display high selectivity, superior chemical and thermal stability, and, most importantly, a longer lifetime compared to polymeric membranes. Furthermore, ceramic membranes allow for the precise adjustment of the appropriate pore size within a narrow pore size distribution [ 15 ], which is an important factor in the separation of oil and water [ 1 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ]. Ceramic membranes, such as alumina, zirconia, titania, silica, silicon carbide, and mullite [ 3 , 7 , 16 , 17 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ], some low-cost ceramic membranes made of kaolin, blast furnace slag, and fly ash [ 24 , 25 , 26 ], and polymer/ceramic composite membranes [ 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ] have already been applied in separation processes for oil and water.…”