About the Practice
Problem Statement:

The majority scenarios for future global energy predicts that energy demand will triple over the twenty-first century. Crude oil is important and predominant energy resource in present human societies. In this conventional future scenario, the need to extract crude oil is expected to increase in order to replace its declining production. The availability of crude oil needs to be increased to match with the rapidly growing consumption. Hence, the proficient recovery of spilled oil from oily-water is an important concern. Therefore, it is worth to think about novel technological solutions for rapid and efficient oil recovery. Besides, a vast amount of oil mixture is wasted causing soil pollution during crude oil exploration. As a result, the wastage of oil during drilling not only leads to compromisation on future fuel consumption, but also creates significant threats to environment and human health. On the other side, oil spills often cause immediate and long term environmental damage. The oil spillage can be cleaned traditionally by mechanical collection, absorbent materials, chemical dispersants, bioremediations, in situ burning, dispersants, solidifiers, skimmers, etc. These conventional oil-removal technologies (particularly, in situ burning, skimmers method) fail to meet the required efficiency without affecting the ecosystem. In order to sustain the crude oil sources for future generations, it is required to adopt corrective means for maximum utilization and minimum wastage. In this regard, adsorbents with nanotechnology based engineered surfaces are a realistic alternative to the limitations of traditional methods used for oil recovery. In such conditions, porous materials combined with functional nanomaterials can be considered as suitable materials for oil recovery. Simultaneously, innovative environment friendly technologies are in high demand for preserving the existing energy resources for future. To overcome this global challenge, two dimensional (2D) materials have great potential towards adsorption processes due to high surface area. It is a pre-requisite for the adsorbent moiety to have a high content of carbon or nitrogen for selective adsorption. The current strategy in our work is to employ a nanocomposite of nontoxic iron nickel (FeNi3) magnetic nanoparticles and 2D graphitic-C3N4 flakes, which provides high surface area owing to its 2D sheet structure and porosity, for safe, efficient and rapid removal of oils from water bodies. This study has reported magnetic hydrophobic/oleophilic graphitic nanosheets exhibiting excellent oil sorption performance and instantaneous removal of adsorbed oil using magnetic field. The stearic acid based surface functionalized porous graphitic flakes exhibit not only wettability transition from hydrophilicity to hydrophobicity, but also selective oleophilicity in oil removal from water body. 2D graphitic flatland with precise surface area and high proportion of mesopore achieves high adsorption efficiency of crude oil. As a result, the sheet thickness enhanced upto 9 folds compared to the pristine one. The developed system efficiently recovers crude oil from water surface under an external magnet with a quick response resulting 4.5 times mass enhancement of the oil adsorbed nanocomposite, which is verified by pseudo second order adsorption kinetics. The adsorption study is in good agreement with the Freundlich isotherm indicating the efficient multilayer adsorption by the nanocomposite system. Apart from the crude oil, the composite system selectively adsorbs a wide range of oils. Thus, we anticipate that the prepared g-C3N4@FeNi3 nanocomposite will act as promising adsorbent material for efficient oil recovery and hence provide feasible solution towards the upcoming oil consumption.

Detail:

World's energy consumption will increase by as much as 50% in the next 20 years and global demand for energy is continuously anticipated to increase over the next few decades. The chase to develop new diverged technologies that can address the challenges currently facing by the industries is on high claim. Innovation in oil exploration and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technologies will be required to meet future demand and hence the Oil and Gas industry will inevitably have to focus on development of new technologies via research and technological innovation to increase the oil recovery of currently producing reservoirs as well as unconventional oil and gas resources. The wastage of oil during drilling not only leads to compromisation on future fuel consumption but also creates significant threats to environment and human health. In addition, even relatively small oil spills can cause major environmental and economic harm, depending on location, season, environmental sensitivity, and type of oil. Hence, the prominent recovery of spilled oil from oily-water is an important concern. Nanotechnology has emerged as an alternative technology for in situ heavy oil upgrading and recovery enhancement. Nanotechnology with Two Dimensional (2D) nanomaterials provides a promising approach to such innovation. Porous materials combined with functional nanomaterial can be considered as suitable materials for oil recovery due to its properties such as wettability, improve mobility ratio, or control formation without agglomeration. Crude Oil is one of a major producer as well as consumer of energy. In order to match the rapid growing consumption and to balance the future demand of energy, recovery of drilled oil from oil-mud mixture is an important concern and should be improved. To do so, we turned to 2D nanomaterial incorporated with magnetic materials for inspiration. Surface modified 2D materials portray unique sorption properties due to their exceptionally high surface area-to-volume ratio and active surface sites. Adsorbents based on 2D flatland with engineered surfaces can overcome this limitation of conventional methods for selective oil absorption. 2D Graphitic carbon nitride used for oil recovery was prepared using cheaper and abundant precursor, urea. Apart from its adsorption property, 2D materials are promising cost effective and environmentally friendly. Magnetically separation of the crude oil on the other hand helps in production of high quality oils that meet pipeline and refinery specifications. Here, we report oleophilic 2 dimensional graphitic sheets incorporated with iron nickel (FeNi3) magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) to form the 2D magnetic nanocomposite system (g-C3N4@FeNi3), surface engineered with stearic acid for quick and rapid recovery of oil. Magnetic hydrophobic/oleophilic graphitic nanosheets exhibiting excellent oil sorption performance and can instantaneous remove the adsorbed oil within fraction of seconds using magnetic field. Quantitatively, the nanocomposite system gains 9 folds enhanced thickness and 4.5 times mass increment showing sorption efficiency. Qualitatively, the smart adsorption property of g-C3N4@FeNi3 has been realized through comprehensive adsorption kinetics and inclusive isotherm studies. Besides, the adsorbed oil can be recovered without harming or creating any damage to the environment. Thus, we anticipate that the prepared 2D g-C3N4@FeNi3 nanocomposite will act as promising adsorbent material for efficient oil recovery and hence provide feasible solution towards the upcoming oil consumption.


About the Innovator

Knowledge Provider / Innovator: Meenakshi TalukdarMeenakshi Talukdar,Pritam Deb
Address: Department of Physics Tezpur University (Central University) Napaam, Tezpur 784028
City: Tezpur
State: Assam
PIN Code 784028
Email: meena21@tezu.ernet.in
Contact No: 9706171963.0

Practice Details

Link: The brilliance of combined surface structure with hydrophobicity/oleophilicity and magnetic functionality through comprehensive adsorption kinetics and inclusive isotherm studies has marked this system as an ideal sorbent for oil recovery.
Problem Scale: Worldwide
News Link 5:


GIAN Reference: GIAN/UAL/1416
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