Title: Kinetics, equilibrium and thermodynamic studies of adsorption of oil from oil-in-water emulsion by activated charcoal

Authors: Vinay Kumar Rajak; Hemant Kumar; Ajay Mandal

Addresses: Department of Petroleum Engineering, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, 826004, India ' Department of Petroleum Engineering, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, 826004, India ' Department of Petroleum Engineering, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, 826004, India

Abstract: Studies have been made on the effectiveness of powdered activated charcoal (PAC) for separating oil from oil-in-water emulsion. The present paper deals with the characterisation of oil-in-water emulsion and PAC before and after adsorption. From the BET surface area analysis it was found that the pore volume of activated charcoal after adsorption of oil decreased from 0.573 cc/g to 0.109 cc/g and surface area decreased from 383.016 m²/g to 73.072 m²/g. A maximum 98.8% separation of oil was obtained by adsorption of emulsion onto PAC at optimum condition. From the study of different adsorption isotherm it was found that Freundlich isotherm is the best way to describe the adsorption of oil from oil-water emulsion by PAC. Adsorption of emulsion on PAC follows both pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order kinetic model. Thermodynamic studies indicate that adsorption is feasible, spontaneous and exothermic in nature.

Keywords: oil-in-water emulsion; oil separation; powdered activated charcoal; oil adsorption; kinetics; equilibrium; thermodynamics; adsorption isotherms; kinetic modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSURFSE.2016.081038

International Journal of Surface Science and Engineering, 2016 Vol.10 No.6, pp.600 - 621

Received: 30 Sep 2015
Accepted: 17 Jan 2016
Published online: 19 Dec 2016 *

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