Oil pollution from produced water in the offshore petroleum industry is one of the most serious marine pollutants worldwide, and efficient separation technology is crucial for the control of oil pollutant emission. Medium coalescence is an efficient oil-water separation technology, but its theory is lacking and the development is slow. In this work, the microscopic mechanism of fiber coalescence was revealed, and found that the effective collision positions were the three-phase contact line and the exposed fiber surface. Further, a theoretical model for calculating the separation performance of a fiber bed was established. For a given inlet droplet size distribution and bed geometric parameters, the outlet droplet size distribution and the total separation efficiency of the fiber bed can be predicted. Then, an Ω-shaped woven method composed of oil-wet fibers and oil-phobic fibers was designed and the separation performance of the fiber beds prepared by the method and the influence law of various parameters were clarified through macroscopic experiment. Finally, the novel technology achieved its first engineering application on an offshore platform, with the average oil content of the outlet was less than 25 mg/L, which could reform the current treatment process of produced water.
Keywords: Coalescence mechanism; Droplet collision; Fiber woven structure; Offshore produced water; Theoretical model.
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