According to RCO News Agency, citing Amirkabir University of Technology, Fatemeh Hosni, a doctoral stude of Amirkabir University of Technology, with the guidance and direction of Abdolreza Urojalian, a member of the academic faculty of Amirkabir University of Technology, and Alimurad Rashidi, a member of the academic faculty of the Oil Industry Research Institute, carried out a project titled “Manufacturing nanostructured membranes using organic-metallic frameworks placed on copper mesh to separate oil from water.”
In this regard, Hosni said: In rece years, the observance of strict restrictions on the discharge of wastes, especially oil wastes, has caused the design of high-efficiency systems to remove oil from wastes to be considered. Membrane filtration can be meioned among these systems.
He added: Most of the membrane processes that have been used so far are not able to separate oil-in-water emulsions. Also, some of the manufactured membranes have a low separation flux, and this issue will prolong the separation time and eveually lead to membrane clogging. Therefore, in order to solve these problems in this thesis, using syhesized nanoparticles, a nanostructured nanocomposite membrane with hydrophilic property was made, which in addition to providing a very high water flux, also has a long life.
The executor of the project considered the application of the constructed membrane in the separation of oil-in-water emulsions, which solves the problems of using suspension breakers.
This graduate of Amirkabir University of Technology added: Through these membranes, oil-coaminated water will be purified and environmeal problems will be solved by these polluted waters. Purified water can also be used in industries such as agriculture.
Hosni explained the details of this project and said: For this purpose, MIL-101 (Cr) nanoparticle and boron nitride nanotube were first made in the laboratory, then each of the nanoparticles was first placed independely and then as a nanocomposite on copper grids, and by changing the parameters, efficie membranes were made to separate water and oil and purify oil wastes with high capacity.
He emphasized: In this thesis, we managed to separate the oil and water mixture with the help of nanocomposite membranes with an efficiency of 99% and a flux of 96000 L/m2hr.
According to him, the real sample of oil emulsion in the water of Siri Islands was purified by these membranes. The COD of the treated efflue was reduced from 300 ppm to about 10 ppm, which is in accordance with environmeal standards.
Hosni cited the construction of large-scale membranes for the treatme of petroleum efflues in the industry and the publication of 3 ISI articles as other achievemes of this research and noted that: all sectors, including the syhesis of nanoparticles, the construction of membranes, the separation of water and oil with very high flux, and the separation of oil-in-water emulsion with high efficiency, have been new. Relatively low cost, availability of raw materials, use of membranes prepared on a high scale and excelle separation efficiency are the competitive advaages of this product.
He stated: Nanocomposite membranes made for wastewater treatme in all industries and for water and oil separation will be used on a high scale and with great efficiency, which will be a great help in preserving the environme.
