SEPARATION OF OIL CONTAMINANTS BY SURFACTANT-AIDED FOAM FRACTIONATION

The separation of oily contaminants out of aqueous/non-aqueous phases using foam fractionation with a surfactant was investigated. In the se paration of the light oil (hexadecane), the eluted amount of oil and t he o/w (oil/water) ratio increased with the weight percentage of SDS ( sodium dodecyl sulfate); and the ratio actually remained the same abov e the CMC critical micelle concentration) point (0.23 wt% of SDS). Mos t of the oil was eluted even at 49:1 initial o/w ratio with the surfac tant. For the heavy oil (carbon tetrachloride), the eluted o/w ratio a nd the oil recovery had maxima at 0.05 and 0.1 wt% of SDS solution, re spectively, even though the overall recovery of 20-30% was much lower than that of 80-100 % in the light oil. It was speculated that emulsio n formation might affect oil entrapment in the foams. Higher gas flow rates, in general, increased the oil recovery, but did not increase th e o/w ratio in the effluents.