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Highly Efficacious Oil–Water Separation by Facile Stacking of the Iron Powder Waste

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Abstract

Iron powder is generated as an inevitable solid waste during the processing of the iron-based products in the foundry. This research presented an insight into utilizing the iron powder waste turned into iron powder layer by facile stacking. The iron powder layer could be employed for oil–water separation as it contained numerous coarse irregular-shaped hydrophilic iron particles. The iron powder layer showed a high average oil–water separation efficiency of around 99% for different oil–water mixtures tested along with reasonable flux and intrusion pressure averaging 44 Lm−2 min−1 and 0.4 kPa, respectively. The influence of various thicknesses (1 mm, 3 mm, and 5 mm) of the iron powder layer on oil–water separation performance showed that the flux values drastically declined for higher thicknesses. The iron powder layer also had superior stability in harsh conditions. Application of the iron powder layer for oil–water separation of the oily wastewater collected from the locomotive workshop exhibited almost 100% separation proficiency along with a reasonable flux value of 37.57 Lm−2 min−1, intrusion pressure value of 0.339 kPa, and a high possibility of recycling permeate for washing tasks in the locomotive workshop. Separation effectiveness was detected to be more than 98% even for the fifth cycle indicating prominent reusability of the iron powder layer. Thus, this research demonstrated a pronounced potential for eco-pollution reduction and practical application.

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The data used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the kind support of the National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, Tiruchirappalli, 620015, India

    V. Preethi, S. T. Ramesh & R. Gandhimathi

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  1. V. Preethi
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  2. S. T. Ramesh
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  3. R. Gandhimathi
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Contributions

V. Preethi—methodology formulation, performed the experiments, data interpretation, original draft preparation, critical review, editing, and revision of the manuscript. S. T. Ramesh and R. Gandhimathi—provided the resources required to conduct the experiments, validated the results, and supervised the study. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to S. T. Ramesh.

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Highlights

• Iron powder waste was turned into an oil-water separating layer by facile stacking.

• Iron powder layer exhibited a very good oil-water separation efficiency.

• Flux drastically declined for higher thickness of the iron powder layer.

• Iron powder layer had superior stability in harsh conditions.

• Iron powder layer was applied for oil-water separation of locomotive wash wastewater.

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Preethi, V., Ramesh, S.T. & Gandhimathi, R. Highly Efficacious Oil–Water Separation by Facile Stacking of the Iron Powder Waste. Water Air Soil Pollut 235, 149 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-024-06945-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-024-06945-5

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