Removal of Oil from Oil-Contaminated Sand Using Chemical-Free Bubbles in Turbulent and Laminar Flows: A Conceptual Paper

Abstract

Regardless of the type of oil spill in our environment, numerous studies have demonstrated the ecological and economic consequences of our activities. There are many techniques available that can be used to treat oily-contaminated sand. However, significant improvements in efficiency, energy consumption, and treatment costs are required to make the technologies more environmentally friendly. This paper demonstrates the concept of micro and macro bubbles in the turbulent and laminar flows to remove the oil from the contaminated sand. The parameters tested in this study are macro and microbubbles, laminar and turbulent flows, saline and tap water, flowrate, retention time, and oil-sand ratio. The analysis proposed in this study is the chemical oxygen demand, total organic compound, thermogravimetric analysis, and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. The preliminary results indicate that when microbubbles are introduced at the appropriate pressure, flowrate, salinity level, and temperature, the removal efficiency of oil from the oil-in-water mixture was 95.8%.