Iranian Researcher Produces Oil/Water Separation Filter Using Nanotechnology
Elmira Velaei, who has a PhD in chemical engineering from the Tehran-based Iran University of Science and Technology and a master's degree in chemical engineering from Sahand University in Tabriz has planned to make a water and oil separator system using filters covered with nano coatings that has special wetness.
Regarding her motivation to pursue this technological project, she stated, “In many industries, a very high volume of oily waste is produced, which has become a common pollution in the world and is now considered a serious global concern.”
In addition, oil spill which usually takes place in sea transportation or oil production is an important problem for the marine environment and ecosystem, so separating and purifying water from oil pollution has been a challenging issue in recent years that requires ideas. and new scientific techniques, according to the researcher.
“For this reason, there has been a great demand for the development of effective and inexpensive methods to remove different types of organic pollutants from the water surface and to eliminate oil and oil pollution from industrial and refinery effluents,” Velaei added.
“Moreover, due to the flammability of oil and the possibility of its decomposition into other harmful chemicals, it leads to the creation of secondary environmental pollution, risks for living organisms and ultimately dangers for human health,” she said.
“There are other chemicals that are used in the process of washing and cleaning oily pollutants. These materials cause environmental pollution,” the researcher said.
She went on to explain more that regardless of environmental pollution and ecological hazards, a broad group of chemical processes require the separation of oils or fats from water.
“Furthermore, the possibility of recycling oil and reusing it in many industries stresses the need to develop new and more efficient technologies,” she continued.
Stating that the separation of water and oil in industries is done for the two purposes of oil purification and water purification, Velaei added, “With that in mind, this product has many applications in various industries, including refineries, petrochemicals, and power plants, and it can be filtered with a specific wettability in order to remove oil from effluents and oil purification with the aim of reusing it in refinery, petrochemical and power plant units.”
According to the researcher, investigating the performance of these filters for treating industrial waste samples and finding the challenges to their commercialization is one of the main salient points of their project.
Valaei went on to stress that in the project, the basic infrastructure for the development of that type of filters on a semi-industrial scale has been examined, and the main challenges for their entry into the target markets have been identified, and if possible, separators based on this type of filters can be built on a laboratory scale for the time being.
He described the identification of the target markets as another goal of their technological project and added, “In addition to using this type of filters in wastewater treatment processes such as power plant, it will also be used in other industries to purify transmission oil and shipping industries.”
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