In this paper, cellulose
chitosan composite aerogels were prepared
through sol–gel and freeze-drying processes. The porous morphology
of the aerogels was controlled by adjusting the cellulose concentration.
Within a certain range, as the concentration of cellulose increases,
the pore diameter of the composite aerogel becomes smaller and the
pore structure becomes denser. The cellulose–chitosan composite
aerogel can successfully separate the oil–water mixture without
asphalt and showed stable filtration performance. The filtration speed
is basically unchanged after a slight decrease and can be maintained
at about 90% of the initial filtration speed within 30 min. The filtration
speed can reach up to 9315 kg·h–1·m–2. When filtering bituminous oil–water mixtures,
the filtration rate decreased significantly, with a 50% drop in 30
min. After adding the asphalt stabilizer poly(styrene-alt-octadecyl maleimide) (SNODMI), which is made in our laboratory,
the effect of aerogel filtering the asphalt-containing oil–water
mixture is obviously improved, and the downward trend of filtration
speed is obviously improved. The combination of SNODMI and cellulose–chitosan
has great application potential in the field of asphalt-containing
oil–water separation.