Oil emulsion separation using forward osmosis and its performance evaluation
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Date
2018-06
Authors
Melvin Raj Kunalan
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Abstract
In this study, the separation of water from synthetic produced water and oil-in-water emulsion via forward osmosis was carried out. The membrane used in this study
was thin film composite (TFC) membrane with an active polyamide layer. The effect
of different feed oil concentrations (50ppm, 100pp, and 500ppm) on the membrane
performance was studied. It was found that the water permeate flux decreased when
the feed oil concentration was increased due to the formation of cake layer on the
membrane surface. The permeate flux of oil-in-water emulsion is higher than that of
synthetic produced water due to the presence of sea salt in the synthetic produced water
that gives a higher osmotic pressure. The fouling phenomena of the membrane is
observed and analysed using scanning electron microscope (SEM). The TFC
membranes used in this study gave an effective oil rejection rate of 99.2% with
minimal fouling tendency. The flux values obtained for synthetic produced water and
oil-in-water emulsion were 0.001295 m3/m2.h and 0.004078 m3/m2.h respectively.