Preparation, characteristics, and performance of the microemulsion system in the removal of oil from beach sand

• DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.115234
• Publication Date: 2023-07-01T21:58:29Z
• Authors: Huifang Bi; Catherine N. Mull...; Kenneth Lee; Chunjiang An; Jiyuan Wen; Xiaohan Yang; Linxiang Lyu; Zhaonian Qu
• Keywords: Microemulsion

Oil deposited on shoreline substrates has serious adverse effects on the coastal environment and can persist for a long time. In this study, a green and effective microemulsion (ME) derived from vegetable oil was developed as a washing fluid to remove stranded oil from beach sand. The pseudo-ternary phase diagrams of the castor oil/water (without or without NaCl)/Triton X-100/ethanol were constructed to determine ME regions, and they also demonstrated that the phase behaviors of ME systems were almost independent of salinity. ME-A and ME-B exhibited high oil removal performance, low surfactant residues, and economic benefits, which were determined to be the W/O microstructure. Under optimal operation conditions, the oil removal efficiencies for both ME systems were 84.3 % and 86.8 %, respectively. Moreover, the reusability evaluation showed that the ME system still had over 70 % oil removal rates, even though it was used six times, implying its sustainability and reliability.