PIV investigation of oil–mineral interaction for an oil spill application

Abstract

The mechanism of the formation of oil–mineral-aggregates (OMA) is studied by particle image velocimetry (PIV) to evaluate factors that may influence its application as an oil spill countermeasure. Both stationary and moving oil droplet strategies are employed. The movements of mineral particles near an oil droplet are captured and the interactions between mineral particles and oil droplets are visualized through the vector fields of mineral particles. The interaction between two different crude oils and three types of minerals were evaluated in this work. The results show that hydrophobicity plays an important role in the interaction between mineral particles and oil droplets. Hydrophobic minerals (modified Kaolin) tend to have more oil–mineral attraction than hydrophilic minerals (original Kaolin and diatomite). The results obtained in this work suggest that the medium South American crude was more repulsive against hydrophilic minerals (both Kaolin and diatomite) than the Alaska North Slope crude. On comparison to the original Kaolin, the vector field for oil in motion shows a more intensive interaction between modified Kaolin and Alaska North Slope oil and higher velocities maintained for a longer time period. The effect of dispersant is also tested. The results show that the oil-dispersant mixing method does not significantly change the oil surface property, while the water-dispersant mixing does.