A process of mass transfer is described which utilises latent heat transfer with little or sensible heat transfer. In a preferred process microbubbles are used under certain conditions of contact with a liquid phase to ensure highly effective mass transfer between a gaseous and liquid phase with significantly less than expected or little or no sensible heat transfer. The present invention in part provides a means by which the known state of a cold liquid of varying depths can be changed using a hot gas injected via a micro bubble inducing internal mixing without allowing the resultant mixture to reach equilibrium thereby ensuring the transfer process becomes continuous. Thus a process is described wherein at least one gaseous phase is contacted with at least one liquid phase such that the heat ratio of the system (AA) is maintained at an a value of greater than 0.5, and the mass transfer is effected by passing a gaseous phase comprising microbubbles through a liquid phase of thickness no more than 10 cm.

Oil-absorbent skimmers of the present invention include an upper oil-absorbent flotation head that floats on water and several absorbent strands attached to the underside of the flotation head. The flotation head has a liquid-permeable cover with absorbent strips inside. The absorbent strips and strands are made of oil-absorbing materials that resist absorption of water. The passive oil-absorbent skimmers may be free-floating and may be used in stormwater catch basins, water holding tanks, vaults, sumps, bilges and the like for capturing hydrocarbons such as oil and oil-based liquids.

There is provided a method of treating fluid such as tailings from tailings ponds resulting from oil sands production. A fluid treatment separator has a separation chamber having an oil outlet and a water chamber having a water outlet below the height of the oil outlet. A fluid passage connects between the separation and water chambers. The fluid passage is below the height of the water outlet. A centrifuge flow separator is in the separation chamber. A centrifuge flow diffuser is oriented to direct mixed fluids into the centrifuge flow separator. Preferably, the centrifuge flow diffuser is a ring diffuser and the centrifuge flow separator is a centrifuge cone. A fluid treatment system includes a fluid treatment separator and a phase separator and may include multiple fluid treatment separators and phase separators connected in series.

An evaporating system for separating at least two liquids mixed with one another includes a reactor vessel for receiving the mixture from an inlet, the mixture having a mixture level in the reactor vessel, a blowing-in device for blowing a gaseous aerating agent into the mixture and absorbing the first liquid, a heating device for heating the mixture, an outlet for discharging the aerating agent and the absorbed first liquid, and an inlet for introducing a gaseous fluid above the mixture level to generate a gaseous transport stream to the outlet.

A method of processing thin stillage in an ethanol refining operation is provided. The method comprises treating thin stillage upstream of a concentration or evaporation step with an inverse emulsion comprising at least one anionic flocculant and an emulsifying agent selected from a sorbitan ester of a fatty acid, an ethoxylated sorbitan ester of a fatty acid, and combinations thereof, thereby forming treated thin stillage; clarifying the treated thin stillage via at least one of dissolved air flotation and induced air flotation, thereby forming clarified thin stillage and a float layer comprising oil and solids; separating the oil from the solids of the float layer; and recovering the oil.

An apparatus for separating hydrocarbons from water, comprising a tank segment with a fluid inlet subsequent a housing with a liquid gas mixer. The fluid inlet through a cylindrical tank wall,and further through the wall of a conical wall segment, a pipe spread, combining radial and axial flow over ring mounted guide vanes at the upper part of the conical wall segment. A hydro carbon outlet is located at a top end and a water outlet at a bottom end of tank-segment. A pipe for scale and debris removal is connected to the lower part of the bowl. The inner conical wall segment extends to the top end of the tank segment and at this location comprises a ring of vertically mounted guide vanes.

A method of treating a contaminated oil comprising preparing a brine solution, adding ozone to the brine solution to produce ozonated brine solution, adding a volume of ozonated brine solution to a volume of the contaminated oil, mixing the volumes of contaminated oil and ozonated brine solution with coagulant and surfactant at a shear rate sufficiently high so as to cause formation of an emulsion of the contaminated oil and the brine solution, stopping the mixing, thereby causing the emulsion to separate into an aqueous brine liquid phase and an oil liquid phase, separating the brine liquid phase from the oil liquid phase, and separating at least one contaminant from the oil liquid phase to produce a volume of purified oil.

A multi stage process for separating oil, protein, fiber and clean water from a stream containing whole stillage byproduct from ethanol production is disclosed. In a first step, fibers are separated in a two-step process that includes a plate separator and a press. In a subsequent step, the liquid stream separated from the fibers and contains oil, protein and water is treated with a composition that causes the protein to gel. The liquid stream is then processed in a phase separator that drains the oil by gravity, removes the water by an impeller under pressure and removes the solidified protein using a scroll.

Online measurement of dispersed oil phase in produced water can be implemented a method on-site of a flowline transporting a fluid that includes dispersed oil in water. A sample of the fluid flowed through the flowline is obtained. The sample includes the oil phase and the water phase. The sample is combined with a chemical element that can separate the oil phase in the sample from the water phase in the sample. The separated oil phase and the chemical element are transferred into a measurement cell. The chemical element is removed from the measurement cell. After the chemical element is removed from the measurement cell, a quantity of the oil phase in the sample in the measurement cell is determined by a capacitive measurement technique. The determined quantity of the oil phase in the sample is provided.

A method to remove oil from an oily water stream includes the step of pressure controlling a release of dissolved gases from the stream as the stream passes through two or more stages of gas flotation treatment. The operating pressure of the first stage of flotation treatment is purposefully reduced relative to that of an upstream unit so that a certain controlled percent volume of dissolved gases is released. The operating pressure of the second stage of flotation treatment is then purposefully reduced relative to that of the first stage so that another controlled percent volume of dissolved gases is released. Any subsequent flotation treatment stage is at a lower operating pressure than that of the previous stage so that the subsequent treatment stage releases a controlled percent volume of dissolved gases. By controlling the operating pressure in this way, overall separation performance is improved.