A hydrocarbon emulsion treatment system includes a treatment tank having a gas vent for operating the treatment tank near atmospheric pressure. The treatment tank separates water and oil in the emulsion for discharge to separate water and oil tanks respectively. According to a preferred embodiment, the treatment tank and the oil tank are supported on a common frame including an integral secondary containment structure providing secondary containment to both the treatment tank and the oil tank. The treatment tank is supported at greater elevation than the oil tank to allow the flow of oil from the treatment tank to the oil tank primarily under force of gravity.

Iron contaminants are removed from hydrocarbon oils, and from produced water or flowback water by-products of oil and gas production, by treatment of such liquids with a composition comprising a two-tail lipid compound. The lipid binds iron to form a lipid/iron phase in the liquid, which is then removed to provide a liquid with a reduced iron level.

A method of removing or reducing the concentration of a contaminant in wastewater. The method involves combining wastewater and an elemental iron, comprising of zero valent iron, in a tank to produce treatment water. In this method the wastewater contains a contaminant consisting of: selenate [Se(VI)], selenite [Se(IV)], selenocyanate [SeCN.sup.−1], selenide [Se(−II)], and combinations thereof. The treatment water is then agitated with mechanical mixing and air sparging to produce a treated slurry. The treated slurry is then separated into a treated water stream and a contaminate stream.

Systems and methods of removing coke/tar from water in a quench water recycling loop of a steam cracker quench system are disclosed. The systems include a quench water separator that has a feed calming compartment for reducing eddies in feed to the quench water separator. The feed calming compartment is defined, at least in part, by a perforated baffle in the quench water separator. The methods include the use of the quench water separator with the perforated baffle and the calming compartment to separate coke/tar from quench water in the quench water recycling loop.

An integrated boron removal and flocculation process for treating fracturing wastewater is disclosed. The process comprises: adjusting the pH of the fracturing flowback liquid to be treated to become alkaline and adding thereto an oxidant to carry out a reaction for a certain time period, so that the state of the boron present in the liquid is changed; and then adding a barium salt to the resulting reaction mixture to carry out a further reaction between the barium salt and the boron in the changed state to produce a precipitate. The stability of the flowback liquid is deteriorated by the addition of the oxidant. Suspended solids in the flowback liquid can be removed through adsorption, wrapping, and then settling by the action of the precipitate (a barium salt). The process integrates boron removal and flocculation and enables a boron removal rate of 80% or greater. The contents of the suspended solids and oil present in the fracturing flowback liquid after filtration each can be lowered to less than 5.0 mg/L.

A system containing a reactor vessel including zero valent iron media, a source of a conditioning additive, a source of a reaction additive, and a process control subsystem is disclosed. A method for reducing a concentration of one or more contaminants in contaminated water including contacting zero valent iron media with a conditioning additive, contacting contaminated water with conditioned zero valent iron media, and introducing a reaction additive is also disclosed. The conditioning additive and reaction additive may each contain an aluminum salt.

A water treatment system with a photocatalytic nanocomposite sheet, an adsorbent layer, and a fibrous filter, wherein the photocatalytic nanocomposite sheet comprises polymethylmethacrylate and silver phosphate, the adsorbent layer comprises plasma activated carbon nanotubes, and the fibrous filter is a composite of polymethylmethacrylate, polyvinylidene fluoride, and polyvinylpyrrolidone polymer fibers, with carbon nanotubes that are dispersed within the polymer fibers and silver nanoparticles that are deposited on the polymer fibers. Various embodiments of the water treatment system and methods of fabricating the photocatalytic nanocomposite sheet, the adsorbent layer, and the fibrous filter are also provided.

The present disclosure provides a solid waste treatment method, including following steps: screening off masses having a particle size greater than 0.5 cm from solid waste; adding extraction agents to the solid waste and then heating and stirring so that the solid waste is fully dispersed in the extraction agents; placing the mixed extraction agent in a centrifuge and centrifuging the mixed extraction; feeding liquid phase separated by centrifuging into a rectification tower for rectification and cooling, recovering residual oil substances in a rectification kettle, separating mixture of cooled extraction agents and water, continuously adding the separated extraction agents into an extraction kettle for cyclic extraction, and conveying sewage to a sewage treatment plant to treat and discharging the sewage after the sewage reaches a treatment standard.

Composite materials for removing hydrophobic components from a fluid include a porous matrix polymer, carbon nanotubes grafted to surfaces of the porous matrix polymer, and polystyrene chains grafted to the carbon nanotubes. Examples of porous matrix polymer include polyurethanes, polyethylenes, and polypropylenes. Membranes of the composite material may be enclosed within a fluid-permeable pouch to form a fluid treatment apparatus, such that by contacting the apparatus with a fluid mixture containing water and a hydrophobic component, the hydrophobic component absorbs selectively into the membrane. The apparatus may be removed from the fluid mixture and reused after the hydrophobic component is expelled from the membrane. The composite material may be prepared by grafting functionalized carbon nanotubes to a porous matrix polymer to form a polymer-nanotube composite, then polymerizing styrene onto the carbon nanotubes of the polymer-nanotube composite.

Functionalized material, methods of producing the functionalized material, and use thereof for separation processes such as for separating and extracting a dissolved organic foulant, charged contaminant or oily matter or any combination thereof from water (e.g., produced water), are provided. The method of making the functionalized material, can include: a) providing a mineral material; b) providing an alkyl chain and/or a perfluorinated species, the alkyl chain or perfluorinated species selected to dissolve organic foulants, charged contaminants or oily matter from water or any combination thereof; c) hydroxylating the material via a concentrated acid solution or a basic solution; and d) grafting the alkyl chain and/or the perfluorinated species onto the material via a silanation reaction.