Recovery of fuel from real waste oily sludge via a new eco-friendly surfactant material used in a digital baffle batch extraction unit

Jasim I Humadi; Saad A Jafar; Nisreen S Ali; Mustafa A Ahmed; Mohammed J Mzeed; Raheem J Al-Salhi; Noori M Cata Saady; Hasan Sh Majdi; Sohrab Zendehboudi; Talib M Albayati

doi:10.1038/s41598-023-37188-9

Recovery of fuel from real waste oily sludge via a new eco-friendly surfactant material used in a digital baffle batch extraction unit

Sci Rep. 2023 Jun 19;13(1):9931. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-37188-9.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Petroleum and Gas Refining Engineering, College of Petroleum Processes Engineering, Tikrit University, Tikrit, Iraq.
² Materials Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Mustansiriyah University, Baghdad, Iraq.
³ Ministry of Oil, North Refineries Company, Baiji Refinery, Slah Al-Deen, Iraq.
⁴ Department of Civil Engineering, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, A1B 3X5, Canada.
⁵ Department of Chemical Engineering and Petroleum Industries, Al-Mustaqbal University, Babylon, 51001, Iraq.
⁶ Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Technology-Iraq, 52 Alsinaa St., P.O. Box 35010, Baghdad, Iraq. Talib.M.Naieff@uotechnology.edu.iq.

Abstract

This study focused on developing a new cocktail extraction agent (CEA) composed of solvent and a new surfactant material (SM) for enhancing the efficiency of fuel recovery from real waste oil sludge (WSO). The effects of different solvents (e.g. methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), naphtha, petrol and kerosene), SMs (Dowfax and sodium thiosulfate), extraction time (10-20 min), extraction temperatures (20-60 °C) and CEA/sludge ratios (1-4) on the extraction performance were investigated. SMs and DBBE design enhanced the extraction efficiency by increasing the dispersion of solvent in WSO and enhancing the mixing and mass transfer rates. Results proved that Dowfax was the best SM for oil recovery under various conditions. The best CEA (e.g. MEK and Dowfax) provides the maximum fuel recovery rate of 97% at a period of 20 min, temperature of 60 °C and 4:1 CEA/sludge ratio. The produced fuel was analysed and fed to the distillation process to produce diesel oil. The characteristics of diesel oil were measured, and findings showed that it needs treatment processes prior its use as a finished fuel.