Lau, E. V.
Monash University Malaysia, Malaysia
Title: Integrated micro-macrobubbles flotation for the recovery of heavy crude oil from contaminated sand
Biography
Biography: Lau, E. V.
Abstract
The success of the flotation technology to recover oil from sand after an oil spill event highly depends on the collision and adhesion probability of bubbles to oil. This study presents the novel coupling of microbubbles and macrobubbles in the flotation process to recover crude oil (380 cst) from sand. The use of the integrated micro-macrobubble flotation at initial experimental conditions showed a higher oil recovery efficiency of 51% as compared to microbubble and macrobubble flotation alone of 40% and 24% respectively, from oil-wet sand. The experimental conditions were then optimised to 40oC, pH 12.5, and run time of 30 minutes which yielded a maximum oil recovery of 68.6% in similar oil-wet sands. Thus, from the improved results, it can be seen that the coupled bubbles provide a higher surface area for bubble-oil attachment, while at the same time improve the buoyancy for flotation.