Session: 04-01 Research for Clean Energy Transition (Socio-Technical, Education and Policy)

Paper Number: 106938

106938 - Hydrogel-Coated Mesh for High-Efficiency, Ultra-Fast Oil-Water Separation 

With the expansion of industrial processes and the persistent reliance on petroleum-based products, the need for reliable, cost-effective oil-water separation techniques continues to skyrocket. Fast and efficient oil-water separation is critical to resolving industrial wastewater, environmental protection, and oil spills.  With the demand for oil continuing to grow and the global oil reserves being limited in supply, it becomes more important to be able to recover as much oil as possible. The development of topological surfaces can help provide insight into the significant fundamental mechanisms that play a role in the separation of water in a water-oil emulsion. In this paper, a reinforced membrane made using a polyacrylamide (PAM) hydrogel solution will be used to coat different copper mesh samples that have a variety of pore sizes. The PAM hydrogel solution provides a reliable method for oil cleanup in an environmentally friendly way to prevent fouling from occurring. Conventionally, the wetting properties of membranes are characterized by the contact angle (CA) measurements, including the static water CA, rolling CA, static underwater oil CA, etc.  Using a contact angle goniometer, the CA measurements will be found to evaluate the coated copper mesh samples when the three phases of a solid, liquid, and gas are present and also when the coated meshes are under a water-oil mixture. With the use of a long working distance microscope, the structure of the copper mesh samples will be evaluated before and after coating. In sum, compared to existing studies on membrane-based oil-water separation the proposed experiment is innovative in that the integrated geometry, wettability, and wickability characterization will explore the roles of surface chemistry and geometric features at different scales in oil-water separation.

Presenting Author: Amanda Williams University of Arkansas

Presenting Author Biography: Amanda is an undergraduate student majoring in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Arkansas. She is proficient in optical microscopy, video-based optics using a contact angle goniometer, and programming in Python, MATLAB, and OpenCV. Her research focus includes hydrogel-coated multi-tier structures for high efficiency, ultra-fast oil-water separation, and understanding boiling heat transfer through vapor bubble image analysis