Chitosan as coagulant in treatment of oily produced water by induced air flotation: article / Muhammad Rozairy Roslan

Treatment of oily produced water (OPW) before reuse in injection process and remove to surrounding are necessary to reduce formation damage and pollution. This can be done using induced air flotation (IAF) method to minimize and separate oil from water. Chitosan act as coagulant in this process to enhance the efficiency of oil removal in this process. In this respect, these research objectives are to investigate the affect of pH when changed and to determine the dosage of chitosan required. It was found that the removal of oil by chitosan increase at pH 2 then others. The oil removal by chitosan reached 78.03% and 61.87% at pH 2 and pH 8 respectively. The ability of chitosan to remove oil also decreases after adding aluminium sulfate (alum). Data shows that the highest efficiency of oil removal by mixing chitosan and alum (40% chitosan: 60% alum) is 76.32%. Generally, chitosan has high ability to remove crude oil from OPW and can reduce the cost for water treatment.