Problem statement
Contaminated water from the produced water industry must be treated prior to discharge, reuse, or recycling. Advanced treatment is often necessary to meet increasingly strict regulations, leading to membrane filtration use in produced water treatment. These membranes are susceptible to different forms of fouling, especially when organics and bacteria are present in the water. Pretreatment using a functionalized kapok fiber filter can provide >99.96% oil removal and 6-log bacteria removal to prevent biofouling of membranes in water treatment trains. These filters are effective even under moderate salinity conditions (90.1 mM ionic strength). Similar tools, such as a walnut-shell filter or granular activated carbon, are effective at removing oil but do not provide high bacteria removal.
Invention description
This functionalized kapok fiber filter combines oleophilic properties of kapok fibers with antimicrobial properties of Moringa oleifera seed proteins to create a plant-based filter that provides high levels of bacteria and oil removal.
Moringa oleifera proteins adsorb to hydrophobic kapok fibers to provide a favorable electrostatic interaction with negatively charged bacteria to remove them from the feed solution. Hydrophobic/oleophilic kapok fibers interact with hydrophobic oil to remove it from the oil/water emulsion. This allows simultaneous oil and bacteria removal in the filter. This filter is fully plant-based, making it sustainable and low cost. Additionally, it provides higher bacteria removal than similar technologies.
Markets
Oil and gas companies may be interested in this technology due to their utilization of similar technologies, such as walnut-shell filters.[1, 2]
Development stage
Lab or bench prototype
References
- C. H. Rawlins and F. Sadeghi, “Experimental study on oil removal in nutshell filters for produced-water treatment,” SPE Production & Operations, vol. 33, no. 01, pp. 145-153, 2018.
- S. Adham, A. Hussain, J. Minier-Matar, A. Janson, and R. Sharma, “Membrane applications and opportunities for water management in the oil & gas industry,” Desalination, vol. 440, pp. 2-17, 2018/08/15/ 2018, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2018.01.030.
