Battery cell can manufacture process consumes large amounts of water for washing and cooling metal battery cans, producing wastewaters mainly consist of water, oil, and coolant in the form of emulsion. In this study, a synthetic emulsion was made composing 80% water, 15% petroleum-based hydraulic oil, and 5% water soluble coolant oil by volume, simulating the cell can manufacturing wastewater. After mixing the water, coolant, and oil, two phases spontaneously separated, as shown in Fig. 1.<br/>A two-step treatment process was employed aiming both treating the oil-polluted water and reusing consumed oils. First, a commercial oil separator removed the phase-separated oil layer. Second, a membrane filtration was used to separate the dissolved portion of oil/coolant. Solvent extraction and coagulation experiments were also evaluated as other potential treatment methods. Treated samples were evaluated using FTIR and the results showed a successful separation of oils from water using various combination of the employed methods, as shown in Fig. 2.

Separation of oil-coolant mixture from water using a two-step process of skimming and coagulation

2019 Fall National Meeting

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