Prevention of Sea-Water Pollution by Oily-Water Treatment

Oil spills at sea are a major problem to the environment as they severely damage the surrounding ecosystems. Since crude oil is lighter than water, it floats on the sea surface. The initial treatment of an oil spill at sea includes mechanically skimming the water's surface, a mixture of floating oil, emulsified oil, tar balls, etc. will be taken onto the recovery barge and delivered for treatment and reclamation. A lab scale experimental research was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of different oily-water treatment technologies. This research investigated the effectiveness of Gravity Oil/Water Separation, Coagulation/Flocculation/Sedimentation, and Sand Filtration technologies. Effect of different parameters such as hydraulic residence time, type of coagulant, and coagulant dose were studied. It was concluded that more than 95% of oily compounds can be separated from oily-water waste which is an excellent step in preventing sea-water pollution.