S.Sd. Elanchezhiyan

Enhancement of oil recovery using zirconium-chitosan hybrid composite by adsorptive method.

Recovery of oil from oil-in-water emulsion has been investigated by many scientists and it continues to be a challenging task for environmental scientists so far. Among all the techniques, adsorption is found to be an appropriate process for the removal of oil from oil-in-water emulsion owing to its high efficiency and easy operation. A hybrid material, zirconium-chitosan composite (Zr-CS-HC) was prepared to remove the oil from oil-in-water emulsion and oil was measured by extractive gravimetric method. Various parameters viz., agitation time, pH, sorbent dosage and initial oil concentration for maximum sorption were optimized. In this study, the maximum oil removal percentage was found to be at pH 3.0 and a minimum contact time of 50min using prepared sorbent. The pH of the sorption studies revealed that oil sorption was favored in acidic condition. The sorbent was characterized using FTIR, SEM with EDAX, XRD, TGA and DSC; contact angle and heat of combustion. The experimental data were explained using Freundlich, Langmuir, D-R and Tempkin isotherms to find the best fit for the sorption process. Thermodynamic parameters such as ΔG°, ΔH° and ΔS° were calculated to understand the nature of sorption process. This work provides a potential platform for the expansion of oil removal technology.

Recovery of oil from oil-in-water emulsion using biopolymers by adsorptive method

In the present study, it is aimed to identify, a low cost sorbent for the recovery of oil from oil-in-water emulsion using biopolymers such as chitin and chitosan. Chitin has the greater adsorption capacity than chitosan due to its hydrophobic nature. The characterizations of chitin and chitosan were done using FTIR, SEM, EDAX, XRD, TGA and DSC techniques. Under batch equilibrium mode, a systematic study was performed to optimize the various equilibrium parameters viz., contact time, pH, dosage, initial concentration of oil, and temperature. The adsorption process reached equilibrium at 40 min of contact time and the percentage removal of oil was found to be higher (90%) in the acidic medium. The Freundlich and Langmuir models were applied to describe the equilibrium isotherms and the isotherm constants were calculated. Thermodynamic parameters such as ΔG°, ΔH° and ΔS° were calculated to find out the nature of the sorption mechanism. The kinetic studies were investigated with reaction-based and diffusion-based models. The suitable mechanism for the removal of oil has been established.

Synthesis and characterization of chitosan/Mg-Al layered double hydroxide composite for the removal of oil particles from oil-in-water emulsion

The recovery of oil from oil-in-water emulsion has been investigated using chitosan/magnesium-aluminium layered double hydroxide hybrid composite (CS-LDHCs) by a single co-precipitation method. Resulting better adsorption efficiency of CS-LDHCs could be observed, indicating the synthesized material was effective to adsorb oil particles from oil-in-water emulsion at acidic pH (pH 3.0) than as-prepared LDH and raw chitosan. The enhancement of adsorption properties by CS-LDHCs material were attributed to the high content of LDH in chitosan, which makes the material more effective towards immobilization of oily particles. Batch experiment study has been elucidated by varying different physicochemical parameters such as time, pH, dose, initial oil concentration and temperature. The as-synthesized CS-LDHCs was characterized by various spectro analytical techniques viz., FTIR, SEM with EDAX, XRD, TGA and DSC analysis. To find out the best fit for the sorption process, the obtained adsorption equilibrium data was explained with Freundlich, Langmuir, Dubinin-Radushkevich and Tempkin isotherm models. The mechanism of adsorption process was demonstrated by calculating ΔG°, ΔH° and ΔS° values from thermodynamic parameters in order to understand the nature of sorption process. The schematic representation of oil removal using CS-LDHCs was explored in detail. This work provides an apparent proposal for the growth of oil removal technology.

Defluoridation of water by Tea-bag model using La3+ modified synthetic resin@chitosan biocomposite

The aim of this work is to gain a better understanding of the formation of lanthanum complex onto iminodiacetic acid and chitosan (CS@La-IDAMP) composite for effective removal of fluoride from aqueous solution using a tea-bag model for the first time. The surface textural and chemical properties of the synthesized composites were characterized by FTIR, SEM with EDAX and mapping images. The experimental data revealed that the fluoride adsorption was rapid, maximum fluoride removal could be removed within 12min contact time at neutral pH in room temperature under batch equilibrium model. The equilibrium data for adsorption of fluoride on the synthesized blends were well represented by the Freundlich isotherm, giving a maximum adsorption capacity of 17.50mg/g. The adsorption kinetic models were also examined and it was found that all the sorption processes were better described by the pseudo-second-order model. This results suggested that the efficiency of the fluoride removal process was mainly controlled by electrostatic attraction and ion-exchange mechanism. Furthermore, the CS@La-IDAMP material was tested for the regeneration ability with the suitable regenerant to make this process as cost-effective. Finally, it can be concluded that the composite material is the potential adsorbent for the treatment of fluoride from water.

Effective adsorption of oil droplets from oil-in-water emulsion using metal ions encapsulated biopolymers: Role of metal ions and their mechanism in oil removal

Herein, synthesized and compared the three different kinds of hybrid bio-polymeric composites viz., lanthanum embedded chitosan/gelatin (La@CS-GEL), zirconium embedded chitosan/gelatin (Zr@CS-GEL) and cerium embedded chitosan/gelatin (Ce@CS-GEL) in terms of their oil uptake efficiency. The adsorption efficiency was studied under various optimized parameters like contact time, pH, dose, initial oil concentration and temperature. The oil adsorption capacity was found to be 91, 82 and 45% for La@CS-GEL, Zr@CS-GEL and Ce@CS-GEL composites respectively. The metals were used as a bridging material to connect both CS and GEL using the hydrophilic groups to enhance the oil recovery by hydrophobic interaction. Also, the introduction of metal ions on the surface of biopolymers would modify the oil/water properties which in turn, decrease the interfacial tension between oil and water phases. The mechanism of oil uptake was explained using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDAX) and heat of combustion. The experimental data confirmed Langmuir isotherm as the best fit for oil adsorption process. Thermodynamic parameters such as standard free energy (ΔG°), standard enthalpy (ΔH°) and standard entropy (ΔS°) indicated that the oil adsorption was spontaneous and endothermic. The oil adsorption mechanism was established based on isotherm and thermodynamic models.