Grant: Engage Grants Program

Separating dilute oil contaminations from wastewater is a practical problem in petroleum, food, manufacturing*and metal processing industries. The presence of low concentration oil in the wastewater challenges the*efficiency of separation process, especially when the oil is viscous, dispersed and with a density similar to*water. We propose to investigate the efficiency of superhydrophobic/superoleophilic membranes to separate*dispersed oil-in-water contaminations, using experiments and computational fluid dynamics modeling. The*process benefits from a lower energy input and a higher oil capture selectivity, therefore, lowering the*environmental impacts. The outcome from this research is to design oil-water separator and to conduct*experiments with the optimal design. This research is of great interest to Canada due to the prevalence of heavy*oil, food, metal processing and manufacturing industries. In the heavy oil recovery process by steam injection,*about 3 barrels of water per one barrel of bitumen are required. The produced water is contaminated with small*quantity of oil, which should be separated if recycling is desired. Our company partner, Nexen, is a Canadian*company that invests on the development of hydrocarbon reserves through environmentally responsible*processes. Access to water is critical for Nexen due to the focus of the company on developing unconventional*heavy oil/bitumen in tar sands and shale oil/gas formations, which are water demanding. Efforts to*monitor/recycle the used water has resulted Nexen in developing/ utilizing new technologies with decreased*surface and fresh water demand, including in SAGD operations in AB, Canada and in operations in shales in*BC, Canada. Centrifugation is conventionally used to separate oil from produced water; however, it is energy*demanding and features a low efficiency for dilute oil contaminations. Nexen explores innovative technologies*to reduce the water footprint with lower energy and environmental impacts. Through engaging partnership with*research teams at the Memorial University, the company hopes to ultimately obtain the technology to use a*more energy-efficient separation process for their post EOR water treatment applications.