Study of smectitics clays in oil/water separation

Abstract

Contamination by organic compounds encourages the search for new remediation technologies. Oil / water emulsions are the main pollutants emitted by industrial and domestic effluents. Oily waters in underground channels and coastal areas present serious water pollution problems and are in urgent need of solutions. In view of this scenario, this work aimed to contribute towards the study of smectitic clays and their use as an adsorbent in the oil / water separation process. The clay was characterized by the techniques of X-ray diffraction (XRD) to identify the material structure and X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy by Dispersive Energy (EDX) to determine the chemical composition of the material in qualitative and semi-quantitative terms. Foster's adsorption and swelling capacity test indicated the high potential that bentonite clay has as an adsorbent. The results of tests carried out on gasoline, diesel and kerosene indicate that the Algiers clay has an adsorption capacity in the organic solvents tested: gasoline (1.788 g/g), kerosene (1.501 g/g) and diesel (2.745 g/g).