Novel mesoporous silica (MCM-41) and its characterization for oil adsorption from produced water injected in water injection projects using fixed bed column processes

摘要

Produced water is a by-product of oil and gas production. Once produced water is separated from oil (and gas) it is treated and then discharged to surface water or re-injected for either reservoir pressure maintenance or disposal. Here, we prepared mesoporous silica (MCM-41) by simple single step method and characterized by XRD, FTIR, Raman, N-2 adsorption-desorption and TEM. Then, a continuous fixed bed study was carried out using a prepared MCM-41 for oil removal from produced water. The effects of flow rate and bed height on the breakthrough characteristics of the adsorption system were determined. XRD analysis of the silica powder showed complete formation of a single phase mesoporous MCM-41 without contamination of other phases of silica. The maximum removal (70.26%) was achieved for a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min and a bed height of 1.5 mm. Two models Thomas and Yoon-Nelson were applied to predict the breakthrough curves. The results show that Thomas model fitted well the adsorption data with a correlation coefficient (R-2) at different conditions. R2 values suggested that the suitable model for describing the chemisorption oil on MCM-41 was Thomas model. The model showed that the MCM-41 was suitable adsorbent for oil using fixed bed adsorption.