Crude oil/water emulsion separation using graphene oxide and amine-modified graphene oxide particles

Abstract

Graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets have been experimentally proved to be a highly efficiency, rapid and universal demulsifier to break up the crude-in-water emulsion. The alkylamine functionalization of graphene oxide is well known as a way to turn graphene oxide highly affine with organic solvents. In the present work an amphiphilic material, graphene oxide functionalized by amino groups were prepared by Hummer’s modified method. We introduced it as a versatile demulsifier to break up crude-in-water emulsions. The amphiphilic material was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and emission scanning electron microscope (SEM). The efficient demulsifier to break up crude-in-water emulsion was proved in synthetic emulsion using Colombian crude oil with different concentration. Demulsification tests indicated that graphene oxide amine-modified (GO-A) could separate the crude-in-water emulsion in a short time. Demulsification performance of amphiphilic material was made using the bottle test and evaluated by UV–Vis absorption spectroscopy to measure the final grease concentration after GO-A treatment.