Separation of emulsified oil using amine-modified graphene oxide membrane

With the continuous development of society, the demand for treating oily wastewater in oil fields to achieve resource recovery and reuse is becoming increasingly urgent. Membrane materials have become one of the most promising materials for treating oily wastewater due to their high separation efficiency and low energy consumption.Graphene and its derivatives have the characteristics of ultra-high water flux, special physical, chemical properties, adjustable layered structure, gradually becoming a new generation of membrane materials that can be used for sewage treatment. The interlayer transport channels of graphene oxide (GO) membranes can be artificially modified and regulated to achieve separation of oil-water emulsions. This article adopts the method of vacuum filtration to prepare a series of GO membranes. The experimental procedure is concise, with mild reaction conditions and simple operations. The ethylenediamine-modified graphene oxide (EGO) membrane exhibits the highest water flux (879.2 L/m2h), which is 1.5 times that of the original GO membrane. Moreover, the EGO membrane demonstrates remarkable oil-water separation capabilities, achieving separation efficiencies of over 90% for coal oil-in-water emulsions, petroleum ether-in-water emulsions, and lubricating oil-in-water emulsions. The separation efficiency for soybean oil-in-water emulsions is also around 80%. This study will provide new ideas for the treatment of oily wastewater