Oil Droplet Removal from Produced Water Using Nanoparticles and Their Magnetic Separation

Abstract The removal of highly stable dispersed oil produced during oil recovery processes is very challenging, especially in offshore operations where the limited space does not allow use of equipment with long residence time for the required separation. Using magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) to remove the dispersed oil from produced water is a promising way to overcome the difficulties that the current treatment technologies face, since the MNPs-attached oil droplets can be quickly and efficiently separated with application of an external magnetic field. The MNPs can be also regenerated and reused, minimizing the generation of hazardous waste. We investigated not only the optimal operating conditions, such as MNP concentration and salinity, but also the mechanisms of MNPs-oil attachment and magnetic separation. We synthesized MNPs in the laboratory with a prescribed surface coating. The MNPs were superparamagnetic with an average individual particle size of ~10 nm. Crude oil content in separated water was reduced by as much as 99.9% using MNP concentrations as low as 0.04 wt% in 5 minutes after MNPs and oil were reacted. The electrostatic attraction between negatively charged oil-in-water emulsions and positively charged MNPs controls the attachment of MNPs to the droplet surface; and the subsequent aggregation of the electrically neutral MNPs-attached oil droplets plays a critical role for accelerated and efficient magnetic separation. The particle aggregation occurred fast, generally within one minute. Thus, the total magnetic separation time was dramatically reduced to as short as 1 second, contrary to that of free, individual MNPs where it took about 36~72 hours, depending on the MNP concentrations. Model calculations of magnetic separation velocity, accounting for the MNP magnetization and viscous drag, show that the velocity of free Amine functionalized MNPs (A-MNPs) increases about 1~3 orders of magnitude as the particles get closer to the magnet depending on the particle size. The smaller the particles, the greater the effect of the magnetic field on the velocity. A typical operating condition would be when the size of the MNPs-oil droplet aggregates is grown to be greater than 360 nm. Then, the total magnetic separation time will be approximately 5 minutes.