Removal of Waste Oil/Water Emulsion by Reverse Osmosis Membrane

Oily waste water that discharges from variety of industries could lead into environmental problem. The oily waste water which discharges into the river or sea could turn into an emulsion by weathering process. This emulsion can have critical impacts on coastal activities by creating hazardous conditions and inconvenience on the shore. Heating, centrifugation, fiber beds, ultra filtration and reverse osmosis are some of the physical methods to break the emulsion. Reverse osmosis membrane method is effective in removal of particles, dispersed and emulsified oil. Reverse osmosis membrane is a separation process that uses pressure to force a solution through a membrane that retain the solute on one side and allows the pure solvents to pass to the other side. The oil-water emulsion that had been prepared will undergo the reverse osmosis membrane under variety of parameters such as pressure, oil-water concentration and feed pH. The quality of water at the output stream is determined based on the total dissolved solid (TDS).