• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.679-688
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• 2000

Dispersants, which are used to break water-in-oil emulsions and to remediate oil-spills, are another water pollutants. In this study, magnetic separation technology was applied to remove dispersants from the sea. Magnetite and maghemite were used as magnetic sorbents and SDDBS, an anionic surfactant and Triton X-100, a nonionic surfactant, were employed as dispersants. Batch experiments were undertaken to study the sorption capacity and sorption equilibrium, and water-bath experiments were conducted to simulate the real situation and to describe the recovery of magnetic particles by the permanent magnet or electromagnet. Maghemite has rather constant removal efficiency for dispersants, regardless of surfactant species. On the other hand, removal efficiency by magnetite is higher for anionic surfactant than maghemite and is higher in distilled water than in seawater which contains more ions. The sorption of dispersants to magnetite is explained by electrostatic attraction and that of maghemite is described not only by electrostatic attraction, but also by structural characteristics that provide high sorption ability and surface condition. Water bath experimental results showed that recovery efficiency of magnetic particle after sorption for dispersants is nearly 100%. It is suggested that this magnetic separation technology is an effective way of dispersant removal because of short operating time, high sorption capacity, and high recovery efficiency of sorbents.