Application of waste polypropylene bags as filter media in coalescers for oily water treatment

Srdjan Sokolovic,Arpad Kiralj,Aleksandar Jokic,Dunja Sokolovic

doi:10.2298/hemind190311013s

Abstract

The polypropylene fibers have been used in bed coalescers for separation of micro-sized oil droplets from water for a long time. Possibilities of applying different forms of polypropylene as filter beds are still being in the focus of many researches. The possibility of applying waste polypropylene bags used for packing vegetables (PPDJ) was investigated in this paper. The results are compared with results obtained by applying waste polypropylene fibers from carpet production (PP). It is well known that there are difficulties to separate the oils of low viscosity by polymer fiber beds. Due to the above mentioned, the presented research refers to separation of low viscosity mineral oil from water. The obtained experimental results confirm that the material PPDJ could be efficiently used as a bed material for coalescers. The critical velocity of 50 m h-1 could be reached at using both polypropylene forms that is from bags PPDJ and from the carpet industry PP, when the adequate bulk density of materials is used.

Highlights

Wastewater is widespread in industry as well as in many services
The waste polypropylene bags used for packing vegetables, PPDJ, are shown in Figure 1a, while the waste polypropylene fibers from carpet production, polypropylene from carpet production (PP), that were described in the previous study [23] here are shown in Figure 1b for comparison
Optical micrographs of packed beds composed of PPDJ and PP fibers are shown in Figure 2a and 2b, respectively

Summary

Introduction

Wastewater is widespread in industry as well as in many services. It could be generated in solvent extraction processes, by heat-exchanges, during the crude oil production, in cooling of units or storage tanks [1,2]. Cleaning the workspace, washing and degreasing engine and heavy machinery parts cause formation of oily wastewaters. The accidental oil spills may occur occasionally during transportation of crude oil and its products by tankers. This causes oil contamination of rivers, lakes and oceans. There are many separation techniques for treatment of oily wastewater such as sedimentation, filtration, membrane separation, and adsorption. Selection of the appropriate technique depends on the wastewater quantity, concentration and form of the oil, as well as on required quality of the effluent, which has to be reached [2,3,4,5]

Methods

Results

Conclusion