scholarly journals Wax-wetting sponges for oil droplets recovery from frigid waters

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. eabc7926
Author(s):  
P. Cherukupally ◽  
W. Sun ◽  
D. R. Williams ◽  
G. A. Ozin ◽  
A. M. Bilton
Keyword(s):  
Crude Oil ◽  
Oil Sands ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Cold Water ◽  
High Viscosity ◽  
Paraffin Wax ◽  
Temperature Dependent ◽  
Oil Droplets ◽  
Efficient Recovery ◽  
Wax Crystallization

Energy-efficient recovery of oil droplets from ice-cold water, such as oil sands tailings, marine, and arctic oil spills, is challenging. In particular, due to paraffin wax crystallization at low temperatures, the crude oil exhibits high viscosity, making it difficult to collect using simple solutions like sponges. Here, we report a wax-wetting sponge designed by conforming to the thermoresponsive microstructure of crude oil droplets. To address paraffin wax crystallization, we designed the sponge by coating a polyester polyurethane substrate with nanosilicon functionalized with paraffin-like octadecyl ligands. The wax-wetting sponge can adsorb oil droplets from wastewater between 5° and 40°C with 90 to 99% removal efficacy for 10 cycles. Also, upon rinsing with heptol, the adsorbed oil is released within seconds. The proposed approach of sponges designed to conform with the temperature-dependent microstructure of the crude oils could enable cold water technologies and improve circular economy metrics in the oil industry.

scholarly journals Sacrificial amphiphiles: Eco-friendly chemical herders as oil spill mitigation chemicals

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (5) ◽  
pp. e1400265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deeksha Gupta ◽  
Bivas Sarker ◽  
Keith Thadikaran ◽  
Vijay John ◽  
Charles Maldarelli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Crude Oil ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Cold Water ◽  
Marine Ecosystem ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Marine Biota ◽  
Polar Group ◽  
Branched Chain

Crude oil spills are a major threat to marine biota and the environment. When light crude oil spills on water, it forms a thin layer that is difficult to clean by any methods of oil spill response. Under these circumstances, a special type of amphiphile termed as “chemical herder” is sprayed onto the water surrounding the spilled oil. The amphiphile forms a monomolecular layer on the water surface, reducing the air–sea surface tension and causing the oil slick to retract into a thick mass that can be burnt in situ. The current best-known chemical herders are chemically stable and nonbiodegradable, and hence remain in the marine ecosystem for years. We architect an eco-friendly, sacrificial, and effective green herder derived from the plant-based small-molecule phytol, which is abundant in the marine environment, as an alternative to the current chemical herders. Phytol consists of a regularly branched chain of isoprene units that form the hydrophobe of the amphiphile; the chain is esterified to cationic groups to form the polar group. The ester linkage is proximal to an allyl bond in phytol, which facilitates the hydrolysis of the amphiphile after adsorption to the sea surface into the phytol hydrophobic tail, which along with the unhydrolyzed herder, remains on the surface to maintain herding action, and the cationic group, which dissolves into the water column. Eventual degradation of the phytol tail and dilution of the cation make these sacrificial amphiphiles eco-friendly. The herding behavior of phytol-based amphiphiles is evaluated as a function of time, temperature, and water salinity to examine their versatility under different conditions, ranging from ice-cold water to hot water. The green chemical herder retracted oil slicks by up to ~500, 700, and 2500% at 5°, 20°, and 35°C, respectively, during the first 10 min of the experiment, which is on a par with the current best chemical herders in practice.

A Test for the Wettability of Carbonate Rocks

1970 ◽  
Vol 10 (01) ◽  
pp. 3-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.M. Duyvis ◽  
L.J.M. Smits
Keyword(s):  
Crude Oil ◽  
Carbonate Rock ◽  
Cold Water ◽  
Extraction Procedure ◽  
Soxhlet Extraction ◽  
High Viscosity ◽  
Spontaneous Imbibition ◽  
Rock Surface ◽  
Test Plate ◽  
Water Saturated

Direct imbibition experiments to test carbonate-rock wettability are occasionally prevented by high viscosity of the oil or rigid films between oil and water. The oil must then be removed from the rock before the imbibition test. A new extraction procedure was tested on limestones born Middle East reservoirs. Samples were taken from rubber-sleeve cores under nitrogen in a polythene glove bag to avoid formation of surface-active compounds through oxidation of crude oil. Conventional Soxhlet extraction of crude oil made water-wet carbonate rock oil-wet. Obviously the hot, dry solvent removes the water before the oil is completely extracted; the oil then contacts the rock surface, making it oil-wet. The extraction procedure was therefore modified so that cold and water-saturated chloroform reached the sample. To remove the oil effectively, the material was crushed and then stirred vigorously during extraction. Fig. 1 shows the extraction apparatus. The chloroform in the extraction thimble was kept saturated with water by the initial addition of some water to the boiling vessel. The vapor from this vessel is then richer in water than cold, water-saturated chloroform. The alundum thimble was made oil-wet (by dimethyl dichlorosilane allowing the solvent to pass through. Blank tests with water-wet and oil-wet samples showed a 1-week test to be appropriate for the extraction. The samples were dried and the wettability was determined by imbibition. A small amount of the sample was placed as a ridge in a hollow of a test plate and was wetted with toluene. By placing plate and was wetted with toluene. By placing water and toluene on either side of the ridge, we could determine whether water displaces toluene from the sample. This can be detected easily because sample material wetted with water is much lighter than that wetted with toluene. If water was indeed imbibed the sample was water-wet. Those samples in which water was not imbibed were tested as follows:the material was mixed with watera edge was again formed in a hollow; andwater and oil were placed on either side to determine whether or not toluene displaced water. So far, we have never observed this spontaneous imbibition. We therefore mixed the fluids and the sample and observed whether the grains were now wetted by toluene (darkening of the grain surface). If so, the sample was called oil-wet. A sample showing no imbibition in either case was neutral. The reliability of the procedure was verified by subjecting limestone core samples to both dry Soxhlet extraction and our wet extraction. The parts of samples from the dry extraction were parts of samples from the dry extraction were oil-wet, and those from the wet extraction were water-wet. Thus, either the samples were originally water-wet and became oil-wet by dry extraction, or they were originally oil-wet and became water-wet through wet extraction. The oil-wet samples could not be made water-wet by subsequent prolonged wet extraction. Thus the original samples must have been water-wet. Wet extraction does change an oil-wet condition to neutral, but never to water-wet. Therefore, a sample found to be water-wet was water-wet before extraction, and a sample found to be neutral was either oil-wet or neutral before extraction. P. 3

scholarly journals Effects of Chemical Dispersant on the Surface Properties of Kaolin and Aggregation with Spilled Oil

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenxin Li ◽  
Yue Yu ◽  
Deqi Xiong ◽  
Zhixin Qi ◽  
Sinan Fu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Crude Oil ◽  
Surface Properties ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Size Ratio ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Oil Droplets ◽  
Mineral Aggregate ◽  
Chemical Dispersant ◽  
Dispersed Oil ◽  
Spilled Oil

Abstract After oil spills occur, dispersed oil droplets can collide with suspended particles in the water column to form the oil-mineral aggregate (OMA) and settle to the seafloor. However, only a few studies have concerned the effect of chemical dispersant on this process. In this paper, the mechanism by which dispersant affects the surface properties of kaolin as well as the viscosity and oil-seawater interfacial tension (IFTow) of Roncador crude oil were separately investigated by small scale tests. The results indicated that the presence of dispersant impairs the zeta potential and enhances the hydrophobicity of kaolin. The viscosity of Roncador crude oil rose slightly as the dosage of dispersant increased while IFTow decreased significantly. Furthermore, the oil dispersion and OMA formation at different dispersant-to-oil ratio (DOR) were evaluated in a wave tank. When DOR was less than 1:40, the oil enhancement of dispersant was not significant. In comparison, it began to contribute when DOR was over 1:40 and the effect became more pronounced with the increasing DOR. The adhesion between oil droplets and kaolin was inhibited with the increasing DOR. The size ratio between oil droplets and particles is the significant factor for OMA formation. The closer the oil-mineral size ratio is to 1, the more difficultly the OMA forms.

Self‐Growth of MoS 2 Sponge for Highly Efficient Photothermal Cleanup of High‐Viscosity Crude Oil Spills

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 1901671 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miao Yu ◽  
Peng Xu ◽  
Jin Yang ◽  
Lai Ji ◽  
Changsheng Li
Keyword(s):  
Crude Oil ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
High Viscosity ◽  
Highly Efficient

Features of Mathematical Modeling of In-Situ Combustion for Production of High-Viscosity Crude Oil and Natural Bitumens

2015 ◽  
Vol 50 (6) ◽  
pp. 579-583 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. R. Isakov ◽  
D. K. Nurgaliev ◽  
D. A. Shaposhnikov ◽  
O. S. Chernova
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Modeling ◽  
Crude Oil ◽  
High Viscosity ◽  
In Situ Combustion

scholarly journals Microencapsulation of oil droplets using cold water fish gelatine/gum arabic complex coacervation by membrane emulsification

2013 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 362-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Piacentini ◽  
Lidietta Giorno ◽  
Marijana M. Dragosavac ◽  
Goran T. Vladisavljević ◽  
Richard G. Holdich
Keyword(s):  
Cold Water ◽  
Gum Arabic ◽  
Complex Coacervation ◽  
Oil Droplets ◽  
Membrane Emulsification ◽  
Water Fish

THE EFFECT OF PARAFFINIC FRACTIONS ON CRUDE OIL WAX CRYSTALLIZATION

2001 ◽  
Vol 19 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 189-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
María del Carmen García ◽  
Miguel Orea ◽  
Lante Carbognani ◽  
Argelia Urbina
Keyword(s):  
Crude Oil ◽  
Wax Crystallization

scholarly journals Untangling mechanisms of crude oil toxicity: Linking gene expression, morphology and PAHs at two developmental stages in a cold-water fish

2021 ◽  
Vol 757 ◽  
pp. 143896
Author(s):  
Elin Sørhus ◽  
Carey E. Donald ◽  
Denis da Silva ◽  
Anders Thorsen ◽  
Ørjan Karlsen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Crude Oil ◽  
Developmental Stages ◽  
Cold Water ◽  
Water Fish ◽  
Oil Toxicity
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