title: Application of rhamnolipid as a novel biodemulsifier for destabilizing waste crude oil.
abstract: Waste crude oil emulsion was inevitably produced in the petroleum industrial process, causing harmful impact on the ecological and social environment. In this study, rhamnolipid was for the first time investigated for demulsification of waste crude oil. As found in this paper, rhamnolipid treatment could obtain over 90% of dewatering efficiency on refractory waste crude oil and such efficient demulsification was confirmed on model emulsions. As further demonstrated on the pilot scale (100 L), rhamnolipid treatment could recover over 98% of crude oil from the wastes. The recovered oil contained less than 0.3% of water and thus can directly re-enter into refinery process while the aqueous phase can be disposed into dischargeable water due to largely reduced soluble COD after subjected to 5 days of active sludge treatment. It seems that rhamnolipids as biodemulsifiers were of great prospects in the industrial demulsification of waste crude oil.
authors: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, PR China.
authors: Xuwei
authors: X
authors: Long
authors: Guoliang
authors: G
authors: Zhang
authors: Chong
authors: C
authors: Shen
authors: Guansong
authors: G
authors: Sun
authors: Ruixu
authors: R
authors: Wang
authors: Lujiang
authors: L
authors: Yin
authors: Qin
authors: Q
authors: Meng
mesh_terms: D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods*; D004655:Emulsions / Q000737:chemistry*; D005079:Excipients / Q000737:chemistry*; D006017:Glycolipids / Q000737:chemistry*; D007220:Industrial Waste / Q000517:prevention & control*; D010578:Petroleum / Q000032:analysis*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D004655:Emulsions; D005079:Excipients; D006017:Glycolipids; D007220:Industrial Waste; D010578:Petroleum; C418382:rhamnolipid