Preparation and Application of Polymer Grafted Nanopyroxene for the Removal of Naphthenic Acids from Wastewater
Abstract
Pyroxene nanoparticles were prepared and grafted with an environmentally friendly monomer for the removal of naphthenic acids from oil sand process-affected water (OSPW) which contributes to its toxicity. Grafting was utilized to achieve high affinity towards the removal of naphthenic acids (NA) in the OSPW. The prepared grafted nanopyroxenes were fully characterized using FTIR, TGA, BET, XRD, HRTEM and AFM to study and confirm their textural surface properties and morphology. Computational modeling was conducted to provide deep insight on the grafting technique as well as the NA removal mechanism.
An OSPW sample was characterized using FTIR, NMR, TGA, XRD, SimDist and GC-MS to understand the nature of the contaminants in the wastewater. This was followed by the preparation of a synthetic wastewater solution by dissolving two model molecules and commercial NA in water. Macroscopic batch adsorption experiments were conducted to carefully study the removal mechanism analyzed using GC-MS and compare it with the computational modeling study.
The prepared grafted nanopyroxenes were found to interact with the contaminants in the water removing essentially all the two model molecules and about 50% of the commercial NA. The size, shape and structure of the contaminant played a key role in the interaction. The bigger molecules were found to have a stronger interaction with the grafted nanopyroxenes over the smaller ones.
The present work holds great promise for the OSPW remediation and the thesis falls within our efforts to reduce the environmental impact of the oil and gas industry in Alberta.
Description
Keywords
Engineering--Chemical
Citation
Nafie, G. H. (2017). Preparation and Application of Polymer Grafted Nanopyroxene for the Removal of Naphthenic Acids from Wastewater (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/27415