Ultrasound Assisted Surfactant Nanofluid Oil Recovery from Contaminated Oily Sludge

Abstract In many nations, oily sludge is considered hazardous waste. Conventional techniques of treating oily sludge indicate that desorption of the oily sludge is inhibited by asphaltenes. Therefore, the main aim of this research is to generate useful hydrogen radicals via cavitation effect to terminate asphaltene macromolecules. In this study, surfactant was extracted from Acacia auriculiformis (AU) and synthesized into nanoparticles. The properties of Acacia auriculiformis surfactant nanoparticles (ASNP) were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), particles size analysis. The interfacial properties of the AU surfactant nanofluid (ASNF) at the interface oil-water was investigated via DCAT 9 data physics tensiometer. Thereafter, the impact of ultrasound-assisted ASNF on the wettability of the oil sludge was determined using a drop shape analyser. Subsequently, the effect of ASNF on ultrasound oil recovery from contaminated oily sludge was investigated. The synthesis method was efficacious in producing ASNP with a size range of 66-298 nm. Likewise, the FTIR showed that the chemical structure of ASNP was not modified during the synthesis process. Furthermore, the ASNF was effective in lowering the interfacial tension of the oil-water interface from 18 mN/m to 1.97 mN/m. Besides, ASNF recovered 79% oil and altered wettability from oil-wet to water-wet. These results suggest that ASNP has the potential for application in oilfields to recover oil from contaminated oily sludge. Moreover, the ASNP can find usefulness as a corrosion inhibitor, emulsifier, viscosifier, drilling fluid additive and drilling mud thinner.