Utilização de uma coluna de flotação para remoção de compostos orgânicos da água de produção

Innovative technologies using surfactant materials have applicability in several industrial fields, including petroleum and gas areas. This study seeks to investigate the use of a surfactant derived from coconut oil (SCO saponified coconut oil) in the recovery process of organic compounds that are present in oily effluents from petroleum industry. For this end, experiments were accomplished in a column of small dimension objectifying to verify the influence of the surfactant SCO in the efficiency of oil removal. This way, they were prepared emulsions with amount it fastens of oil (50, 100, 200 and 400 ppm), being determined the great concentrations of surfactant for each one of them. Some rehearsals were still accomplished with produced water of the industry of the petroleum to compare the result with the one of the emulsions. According to the experiments, it was verified that an increase of the surfactant concentration does not implicate in a greater oil removal. The separation process use gaseous bubbles formed when a gas stream pass a liquid column, when low surfactant concentrations are used, it occurs the coalescence of the dispersed oil droplets and their transport to the top of the column, forming a new continuous phase. Such surfactants lead to a gas-liquid interface saturation, depending on the used surfactant concentration, affecting the flotation process and influencing in the removal capacity of the oily dispersed phase. A porous plate filter, with pore size varying from 40 to 250 mm, was placed at the base of the column to allow a hydrodynamic stable operation. During the experimental procedures, the operating volume of phase liquid was held constant and the rate of air flow varied in each experiment. The resulting experimental of the study hydrodynamic demonstrated what the capturing of the oil was influenced by diameter of the bubbles and air flow. With the increase flow of 300 about to 900 cm3.min-1, occurred an increase in the removal of oil phase of 44% about to 66% and the removal kinetic of oil was defined as a reaction of 1° order.

Estudo da eficiência dos adsorventes de Al2O3 e Fe/Al2O3 para remoção de BTX presente em água contaminada com gasolina

Contamination of groundwater by BTX has been featured in recent decades. This type of contamination is due to small and continuous leaks at gas stations, causing serious problems to public health and the environment. Based on these antecedents, the search for new alternatives for treating contaminated water is shown to be essential. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the efficiency of removal of BTX by adsorption processes employing commercial alumina (Al2O3) and alumina supported with iron (Fe/Al2O3) as adsorbents. It was prepared by a in a synthetic gasoline solution and distilled water to simulate an actual sample. Initially, the adsorbents were characterized by techniques XRD, TG / DTG, XRF, FTIR and SEM/EDS, several trials, where he was placed synthetic solution to react in the presence of Al2O3 and Fe/Al2O3 in a closed, mechanical stirring system were performed varying the catalyst concentration 2, 4 and 6 g.L-1 every 0, 10, 30 60, 90 and 120 min, aliquots were taken and brought to analysis by gas chromatography flame ionization with headspace extraction. The results indicated that the absorbent which has higher BTX removal capacity was the Fe/Al2O3 at a concentration of 6 g.L-1, pH = 4 and time of 90 minutes reaction, resulting in an efficiency, resulting in a 86,5% efficiency for benzene removal, for the 95,4% toluene, 90,8% for ɱ,ρ- xylene and 93.7% for the θ-xylenes. Subsequently, we performed a kinetic study of the reactions, the values of experimental adsorption capacity (qe) showed agreement with the values of the theoretical adsorption capacity (qc) to the pseudo-second-order model in the adsorption tests using 2 and 6 gL-1 of Al2O3 and assays using 2, 4 and 6 g.L-1 of Fe/Al2O3. A fact corroborated by the R2 values, thus indicating that the chemical interactions are present in the adsorption mechanisms of BTX.