Maximizing Oil-in-Water Separation: Tips for Efficient Drying Methods

[fourdegreesc]

Try not to fly too far over my head if you answer this. I'm just an amateur chemist who spent three years in the chemistry department until I hit a wall (Calculus!) and ended up with a writing degree. So be gentle please.

I'm trying to dry oil (vegetable oil) in a process (rather than a batch). It will be in a tiny chamber, maybe as big as your fist, and it will go down at 60C, so I was thinking of pulling a vacuum on the chamber to flash off the water. The chemistry question goes like this:

If the water is emulsified in the oil, will it flash off?

I have experience building evaporative processes, as I built my own desalinator, so I'm biased to this technique. I have already figured out the kinks of it.

Any advice will help. Thanks!

-dennis

 

[nucleus]

Vacuum is one method to remove water from oil. Two technologies are available, flash distillation vacuum dehydration and mass transfer vacuum dehydration. Also absorbent filters, draining, centrifuges, and coalescers can be used.

http://www.machinerylubrication.com/Read/1084/water-contamination-lube

 

[chemisttree]

To get most of the water you want to use a centrifuge first and then follow that with your method or a different drying technology as Nucleus suggests. Centrifuging is a lot cheaper than making vacuum so use it to do most of the work.