Research Progress of Wettable Materials for Oil-Containing Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

Wettability of the material surface is extremely important for the separation of mixtures/emulsions (e.g. oil and water or conversely water and oil). The development of superwetting materials has shown great potential for recovering water from oil-water emulsions and provide maximum anti-fouling properties. In industrial production process, the oil and natural gas industry continuously produces large amounts of wastewater, the wastewater is discharged in water and lead to water pollution, which has seriously affected the development of human society. Therefore, there is an urgent need for an efficient technology to treat the oily wastewater generated from industrial production processes. Among various separation technologies, membrane-based separation techniques have been used to separate oil-water mixtures/emulsions in oily wastewater. In this paper, the properties of wettable materials and their relevant applications in the field of oily wastewater treatment were systematically described in terms of hydrophilicity, hydrophobicity and superwettability. The different roles of wettability modification in the treatment of oily wastewater were summarized. Finally, the importance, challenges and future prospects of wettability modification were pointed out, which would provide necessary guidance for the selection and design of wettability modification, and provide support for the further applications and development in oily wastewater treatment.

Keywords

• wettability|separation of oil and water|superwetting|hydrophobicity|hydrophilicity