Upcoming Developments of Carbon based membranes and Nanomaterials for Oily Wastewater Treatment

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Membrane technology has served as an advanced separation process of surfactant–stabilized emulsions and it is a simple process. However, the real necessity of membranes is in industrial fields for treating oily wastewater which remains limited. The big problem here is severe membrane fouling caused by surfactant adsorption and pore plugging by oil droplets along with degradation over long term application due to its polymeric based structure. In this matter, carbon-based membrane technology has been found out to be an attractive technique to glue the gap between membrane technology and existing oily wastewater treatment.

One of the most concerning pollution sources worldwide is Oil contaminated wastewater. This kind of wastewater pollutants come from sources such as, oil refineries, petrochemical industries, crude oil production, metal processing, lubricants, car washing and cooling agents. It is hazardous industrial wastewater due to toxic substances like phenols, petroleum hydrocarbons, and polyaromatic hydrocarbons which inhibits plant and animal growth and  also possesses mutagenic and carcinogenic risks to us.

 

Many treatment methods can be used to minimize the effects of oily wastewater. Various conventional technologies towards the removal of oil impurities like adsorption, gravity separation, coagulation–flocculation, biological media, etc  can be implemented. But, the increasing global oil demand has made these treatment processes very challenging. It is because these methods can be used only for free oil solution with oil droplets size >150 μm or unstable oil–water emulsion with droplet size falls in the range of 20–150 μm.


Moreover, much of the commercial membranes are made of polymeric materials, they are likely prone to structural degradation in the long term. Thus, advanced inorganic nanomaterials have to be made use of into the polymer-based membrane matrix aiming enhanced membrane surface anti-fouling properties. Carbon-based polymer nanocomposite membranes have drawn tremendous popularity among the researchers as they have excellent mechanical  and chemical stability along with antifouling properties against oil deposition or adsorption.

 

But these  advanced materials mentioned are mostly not much effective in separating oil/water emulsions, especially for surfactant–stabilized emulsions with droplet sizes below 20 mm. So, a secondary treatment is necessary to separate the materials from the process. Thus, materials that are more sustainable and scalable to realize the separation of oil/water emulsions have to be developed. In this way, carbon-based nanomaterials have drawn attention among membrane scientists due to advantages like low cost, highly integrated/smooth operation and superior chemical and mechanical stability. Among various carbon based nanomaterials, Graphene and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been in the areas of interests in oil removal researches as they have an extra-ordinary 1-D structure, oleophilic and hydrophobic in nature and also have a large specific surface area.


Conclusion and future outlook

From various researches and studies which have been performed to design advanced functional nanomaterials and membranes for oil/water separation, Nanotechnology has been one of the emerging areas in many sectors and the has increased in the application of treating oily wastewater as well. The extraordinary properties of the carbon based nanomaterials are able to give opportunities to revolutionize traditional oily wastewater treatment. Also, the unique properties of carbon nanotubes, graphene oxide and carbon fiber have shown potential benefits to many practical applications. Further modification on these nanomaterials to improve their properties and cost-effectiveness has a bright future towards oil related industries. However, it might take a while (years) to resolve the remaining challenges in this field but it shows us that certain carbon-based membranes have great potential in large variety of Industrial Oily wastewater applications in the  near future.

 

References:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cep.2016.08.016

DOI: 10.1039/C7RA02501G

DOI: 10.1039/C7RA02501G 

L. Yu, M. Han and F. He, Arabian J. Chem., http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.arabjc.2013.07.020

J. A. Prince, S. Bhuvana, V. Anbharasi, N. Ayyanar, K. V. K. Boodhoo and G. Singh, Water Res., 2016, 103, 311–318 CrossRef

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procbio.2006.02.006


Comments

  1. BJ RishitNovember 3, 2020 at 6:41 AM

    Very informative!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kiran Miriam JoeNovember 5, 2020 at 6:15 AM

    Oily wastewater treatment is quite challenging and is a global concern around the world. It also harms aquatic species around the area. Membrane technology can be applied to this as a solution. Nice approach 👍🏻.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AtheeshNovember 9, 2020 at 3:50 AM

    Excellent Work 👍

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ranju SimonNovember 9, 2020 at 6:45 AM

    Excellent work

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dozerex ReignzzNovember 9, 2020 at 10:50 PM

    big fan of ur work from now on sir!!🔥🔥🤟🏻

    ReplyDelete
  6. SMSNovember 9, 2020 at 10:54 PM

    👌🏼👌🏼

    ReplyDelete

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