Date | 16th, Aug 2018 |
---|
Home > Press > Particles pull last drops of oil from well water: Rice University engineers find nanoscale solution to 'produced water' problem
Abstract: Oil and water tend to separate, but they mix well enough to form stable oil-in-water emulsions in produced water from oil reservoirs to become a problem. Rice University scientists have developed a nanoparticle-based solution that reliably removes more than 99 percent of the emulsified oil that remains after other processing is done.
A video shows a sample of emulsified oil and water separating when shaken and under the influence of magnetic nanoparticles created at Rice University. (Credit: Biswal Lab/Rice University)
Houston, TX | Posted on August 15th, 2018
The Rice lab of chemical engineer Sibani Lisa Biswal made a magnetic nanoparticle compound that efficiently separates crude oil droplets from produced water that have proven difficult to remove with current methods.
The research is detailed in a paper in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology.
Produced water comes from production wells along with oil. It often includes chemicals and surfactants pumped into a reservoir to push oil to the surface from tiny pores or cracks, either natural or fractured, deep underground. Under pressure and the presence of soapy surfactants, some of the oil and water form stable emulsions that cling together all the way back to the surface.
While methods exist to separate most of the oil from the production flow, engineers at Shell Global Solutions, which sponsored the project, told Biswal and her team that the last 5 percent of oil tends to remain stubbornly emulsified with little chance to be recovered.
"Injected chemicals and natural surfactants in crude oil can oftentimes chemically stabilize the oil-water interface, leading to small droplets of oil in water which are challenging to break up," said Biswal, an associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and of materials science and nanoengineering.The Rice lab's experience with magnetic particles and expertise in amines, courtesy of former postdoctoral researcher and lead author Qing Wang, led it to combine techniques. The researchers added amines to magnetic iron nanoparticles. Amines carry a positive charge that helps the nanoparticles find negatively charged oil droplets. Once they do, the nanoparticles bind the oil. Magnets are then able to pull the droplets and nanoparticles out of the solution.
"It's often hard to design nanoparticles that don't simply aggregate in the high salinities that are typically found in reservoir fluids, but these are quite stable in the produced water," Biswal said.The enhanced nanoparticles were tested on emulsions made in the lab with model oil as well as crude oil.
In both cases, researchers inserted nanoparticles into the emulsions, which they simply shook by hand and machine to break the oil-water bonds and create oil-nanoparticle bonds within minutes. Some of the oil floated to the top, while placing the test tube on a magnet pulled the infused nanotubes to the bottom, leaving clear water in between.
Best of all, Biswal said, the nanoparticles can be washed with a solvent and reused while the oil can be recovered. The researchers detailed six successful charge-discharge cycles of their compound and suspect it will remain effective for many more.
She said her lab is designing a flow-through reactor to process produced water in bulk and automatically recycle the nanoparticles. That would be valuable for industry and for sites like offshore oil rigs, where treated water could be returned to the ocean.
###
Co-authors of the paper are Rice research scientist Maura Puerto, Rice alumnus Sumedh Warudkar of Shell Oil Products and Jack Buehler, principle consultant at Shell Global Solutions.
####
About Rice UniversityLocated on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,970 undergraduates and 2,934 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 2 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/RiceUniversityoverview .
Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.
For more information, please click here
Contacts:David Ruth 713-348-6327
Mike Williams 713-348-6728
Copyright © Rice University
If you have a comment, please Contact us.
Issuers of news releases, not 7th Wave, Inc. or Nanotechnology Now, are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.
Rice Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering:
Rice Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering:
News and information
Scientists unravel 'Hall effect' mystery in search for next generation memory storage devices August 19th, 2022
Researchers design new inks for 3D-printable wearable bioelectronics: Potential uses include printing electronic tattoos for medical tracking applications August 19th, 2022
Videos/Movies
Scientists prepare for the world's smallest race: Nanocar Race II March 18th, 2022
Visualizing the invisible: New fluorescent DNA label reveals nanoscopic cancer features March 4th, 2022
OCSiAl receives the green light for Luxembourg graphene nanotube facility project to power the next generation of electric vehicles in Europe March 4th, 2022
Nanotube fibers stand strong -- but for how long? Rice scientists calculate how carbon nanotubes and their fibers experience fatigue December 24th, 2021
Govt.-Legislation/Regulation/Funding/Policy
New chip ramps up AI computing efficiency August 19th, 2022
Rice team eyes cells for sophisticated data storage: National Science Foundation backs effort to turn living cells into equivalent of computer RAM August 19th, 2022
UNC Charlotte-led team invents new anticoagulant platform, offering hope for advances for heart surgery, dialysis, other procedures July 15th, 2022
Possible Futures
New chip ramps up AI computing efficiency August 19th, 2022
Rice team eyes cells for sophisticated data storage: National Science Foundation backs effort to turn living cells into equivalent of computer RAM August 19th, 2022
Discoveries
Scientists unravel 'Hall effect' mystery in search for next generation memory storage devices August 19th, 2022
Researchers design new inks for 3D-printable wearable bioelectronics: Potential uses include printing electronic tattoos for medical tracking applications August 19th, 2022
Visualizing nanoscale structures in real time: Open-source software enables researchers to see materials in 3D while they're still on the electron microscope August 19th, 2022
Announcements
Scientists unravel 'Hall effect' mystery in search for next generation memory storage devices August 19th, 2022
Researchers design new inks for 3D-printable wearable bioelectronics: Potential uses include printing electronic tattoos for medical tracking applications August 19th, 2022
Visualizing nanoscale structures in real time: Open-source software enables researchers to see materials in 3D while they're still on the electron microscope August 19th, 2022
Interviews/Book Reviews/Essays/Reports/Podcasts/Journals/White papers/Posters
Scientists unravel 'Hall effect' mystery in search for next generation memory storage devices August 19th, 2022
Researchers design new inks for 3D-printable wearable bioelectronics: Potential uses include printing electronic tattoos for medical tracking applications August 19th, 2022
Visualizing nanoscale structures in real time: Open-source software enables researchers to see materials in 3D while they're still on the electron microscope August 19th, 2022
Environment
Generating power where seawater and river water meet July 22nd, 2022
University of Strathclyde and National University of Singapore to co-ordinate satellite quantum communications May 13th, 2022
Lightening up the nanoscale long-wavelength optoelectronics May 13th, 2022
Energy
Generating power where seawater and river water meet July 22nd, 2022
A novel graphene based NiSe2 nanocrystalline array for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction July 15th, 2022
Water
Scientists offer solutions for risky tap water June 17th, 2022
UBCO researchers change the game when it comes to activity tracking: Flexible, highly sensitive motion device created by extrusion printing June 17th, 2022
Organic water splitters get a boost June 10th, 2022
Grants/Sponsored Research/Awards/Scholarships/Gifts/Contests/Honors/Records
New chip ramps up AI computing efficiency August 19th, 2022
UNC Charlotte-led team invents new anticoagulant platform, offering hope for advances for heart surgery, dialysis, other procedures July 15th, 2022
Photoinduced large polaron transport and dynamics in organic-inorganic hybrid lead halide perovskite with terahertz probes July 8th, 2022
Luisier wins SNSF Advanced Grant to develop simulation tools for nanoscale devices July 8th, 2022