Using Flotation to Separate Oil Spill Contaminated Beach Sands
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 136, Issue 1
Abstract
Lab flotation in artificial sea water was used to separate sand-oil mixtures prepared by mixing crude oil with quartz-dominated beach sands. Major factors affecting the separation efficiency for three representative oils (light, waxy, and heavy viscous) were examined through lab flotation tests, vortex experiments, and oil viscosity measurements. Results showed that flotation in sea water can effectively separate the tested sand-oil mixtures which had large contrast in physicochemical properties: (1) aging of sand-oil mixtures reduced the separation efficiency; (2) both the viscosity of crude oil and its adhesion to sand surfaces had major impacts on separation efficiency; (3) addition of small amounts of surfactants could substantially improve the separation efficiency; and (4) for heavy viscous oil, hydrocarbon solvents needed to be added to improve separation because of their solvency and capability in reducing oil viscosity.
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Acknowledgments
Funding for this research was provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. NNSFC20377021, NNSFC40473053, and NNSFC20540420542) and by the Ministry of Education of China under Grant No. UNSPECIFIED106081. Mr. Yirong Deng is gratefully acknowledged for assessing the separation efficiency of sand-oil mixtures by flotation. The writers are grateful for the constructive comments by Dr. Susan E. Powers of Clarkson University during preparation of this manuscript.
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Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 136 • Issue 1 • January 2010
Pages: 147 - 151
Copyright
© 2010 ASCE.
History
Received: Nov 14, 2008
Accepted: Jun 10, 2009
Published online: Jun 17, 2009
Published in print: Jan 2010
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