I need some help in demulsifying a mixture of kerosene, water and perfluorinated surfactants such as PFOS, PFOA and 6:2 fluorotelomer alcohol. Any ideas??
Have you tried small scale centrifugation? If that works, consider a continuous liquid/liquid centrifuge for larger scale. I have used this to break tough emulsions of butanol/water.
Okay, i'm not sure that would work though given that we have a surfactant that helps stabilize the emulsion. Also, continuous centrifugation might lead to high energy costs in large scale applications.
"Sure fire way": see http://www.wilksir.com/pdf/Breaking_Emulsions_Oil_Grease_Extractions.pdf
Not sure what you mean by high energy costs.
I was using a 20 amp max, 240v continuous centrifuge pumping about 100 l / hr. Assuming full load 730 hours a month, that's 3500 kwh. At 15c/kwh that's $500/month for 73000 liters of processed liquid. I am assuming actual load during running is much less, and scale is going to determine costs.
In the industries I have worked in continuous centrifugation is nearly universal.
In addition to the suggestions centrifugation and that given in http://www.wilksir.com/pdf/Breaking_Emulsions_Oil_Grease_Extractions.pdf (especially acidification) addition of cationic polyelectrolyte with high charge density like PDADMAC may be effective. Membrane processes may also work.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Chemistry