South Africans develop oil-water separation membrane

Researchers in South Africa have fabricated and tested a nanotube-infused membrane which could be used to treat polluted wastewater such as oil-containing waste from oil & gas operations.

The researchers, primarily from the School of Chemical & Metallurgical Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, say that high volumes of wastewater in the form of oil-water emulsion are produced in various industries such as oil fields, petrochemical, metallurgical, pharmaceutical and others. Concentrations range from 50‐1,000 mg/L; however, the acceptable discharge limit is only 10-15 mg/L.

Membrane filtration, including microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration and reverse osmosis, has been successfully used in the separation of oil from water, and is useful because of the high quality water produced, simpler module design, low amount of chemicals used and low energy consumption compared to other treatment techniques. However, these techniques are not without problems, including fouling and concentration polarization.

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