Investigation of Polysulfone Based Aluminium Oxide Coated Membrane for Separation of Crude Oil Emulsion in the Niger Delta

Abstract

There is need for efficient separation of crude oil from its emulsion in oil and gas processes especially during production and refining activities. Among other methods used for crude oil emulsion demulsification, polymer membranes have attracted a lot of attention. The increasing interest in polymer membranes usage for ultrafiltration and micro filtration are mainly due to their versatility, efficiency and reduced operating cost when compared with conventional techniques such as use of chemical, flocculation etc. This paper illustrates experimental process for the separation of crude oil emulsion using Polysulfone membrane material coated with Aluminium oxide nanoparticle. The crude oil emulsion was prepared by mixing with distil water to obtain an oil in water emulsion. Because of the oleophilicity of Polysulfone membrane materials in oil/water separation, aluminum nanoparticles were used as metallic coatings to their Polysulfone membrane to improve efficiency and anti-fouling characteristics. Three parametres were investigated in the results, these include the separation efficiency in terms of oil rejection, the permeation flux, the filtrate volume for pressure application of 80% stroke and 60% stroke. The augmented membrane construction yields 98.5% and 97.6% efficiency in terms of oil rejection for a pressure application of 60% stroke and 80% stroke respectively while the permeation fluxes are 0.911 ml/cm 2 -min and 1.024 ml/cm 2min for 80% stroke and 60% stroke pressure application respectively.