Oil-Water Separation from Waste Oily Mixture by Physical Treatment

Abstract

A large amount of water is being used in the upstream, downstream and automobile industrial processes. Its huge fraction comes out as waste after getting contaminated by oil and other toxic substances. Solid wastes, especially oily mixture still remain a major environmental hazard, demanding safer disposal practices. Physical, chemical and biological treatment technologies are available in the environmental field. The need, is to cost effectively optimize these treatment technologies. In our study, we have adopted heat treatment as a physical treatment for oilwater separation. The aim is to reduce the disposal cost of waste oily mixture generated from an automobile industry. Heat treatment can be effectively used to this type of waste oily scum, as it gives much reduction in disposal cost, in short time, without creating much environmental as well as human health hazards. The study focuses on the optimization of time and temperature, to increase separation of oil-water mixture and to reduce the disposal cost.