Oil-Water Separation by Means of Stainless Steel Mesh Coated with Mezopore Graphitic Carbon Nitride (g-C3N4) Nanosheets

The presence of water in the oil often leads to problems reported in the literature from pressure flow limitations, reduced production, pipeline corrosion, pump malfunctions, poisoning of downstream catalysts in catalyst refineries, and other problems related to production equipment and distillation column. In this study, a coated filter with graphitic nitride carbon nanosheets (g-C3N4) was prepared and proposed as an alternative to demulcifiers to separate water from oil before entering the petroleum refinery. For this purpose, mesopore graphitic nitride carbon nanosheets are synthesized by thermal polycondensation method using hard-template approach and coated on the surface of stainless steel mesh using spray gun. The surface of the g-C3N4 coated mesh showed the hydrophilic/underwater superoleophobic wettability properties. The results of water-oil separation using the prepared filter showed that water permeated through the filter with a flux of 2200 L.m-2.h-1, while oil does not pass and remains on top of the filter with the separation efficiency more than 99%. The durability of the filter for water and oil separation was investigated and the results showed that the separation efficiency and flux after 25 cycles of water-oil separation have changed slightly.