Abstract
The main problem usually faced by commercial ceramic membranes in the treatment of produced water (PW) is low water flux even though ceramic membrane was well-known with their excellent mechanical, thermal, and chemical properties. In the process of minimizing the problem faced by commercial ceramic membranes, titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanocomposites, which synthesized via a sol-gel method, were deposited on the active layer of the hydrolysed bentonite membrane. This paper studied the influence of grafting time of TiO2 nanocomposite on the properties and performance of the coated bentonite membranes. Several characterizations, which are Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX), contact angle, porosity, and average pore size, were applied to both pristine and coated bentonite membranes to compare the properties of the membranes. The deposition of TiO2 nanoparticles on the surface of the coated bentonite membranes was successfully confirmed by the characterization results. The pure water flux performance showed an increment from 262.29 L h−1 m−² bar−1 (pristine bentonite membrane) to 337.05 L h−1 m−² bar−1 (Ti-Ben 30) and 438.33 L h−1 m−² bar−1 (Ti-Ben 60) as the grafting time increase but when the grafting time reached 90 min (Ti-Ben 90), the pure water flux was decreased to 214.22 L h−1 m−² bar−1 which is lower than the pristine membrane. The oil rejection performance also revealed an increase in the oil rejection performance from 95 to 99%. These findings can be a good example to further studies and exploit the advantages of modified ceramic membranes in PW treatment.
Highlights
Produced water (PW), a troublesome by-product, can be defined as formation water located in the reservoirs below the hydrocarbon layer
The other study reported that matured oil fields such as oil fields in Danish North Sea may be one of the causes of increase production of PW, other than the demand of oil and gas
Various standalone or combined physical, biological and chemical technique were proposed for the treatment of PW either by removing the suspended solids, de-oiling, removal of iron, desalting the organic compounds and softening the PW
Summary
Produced water (PW), a troublesome by-product, can be defined as formation water located in the reservoirs below the hydrocarbon layer. Once the reservoirs become mature and experience water cuts, the reservoirs will produce PW during oil and gas extraction. It can be grouped into inorganic and organic compounds such as dispersed and dissolved oils, grease, chemicals, salts, dissolved gases, anions, and cations [1]. Various standalone or combined physical, biological and chemical technique were proposed for the treatment of PW either by removing the suspended solids, de-oiling, removal of iron, desalting the organic compounds and softening the PW. The example of physical treatment are activated carbon [8] which used as adsorbent media to remove organic compounds like BTEX (Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene and Xylene), hydrocyclone [9] for the separation of solids in PW based on their density, electrodialysis(ED) [10] to separate either anions or cations. As for the chemical treatment, the example are coagulation and flocculation [18,19,20], and lastly biological treatment [21,22] which is superior in removing anaerobic and aerobic microorganisms
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