Oil–water separation property of polymer-contained wastewater from polymer-flooding oilfields in Bohai Bay, China

In this study, the effects of gravitational settling time, temperature, speed and time of centrifugation, flocculant type and dosage, bubble size and gas amount were investigated. The results show that the simple increase in settling time and temperature is of no use for oil–water separation of the three wastewater samples. As far as oil–water separation efficiency is concerned, increasing centrifugal speed and centrifugal time is highly effective for L sample, and has a certain effect on J sample, but is not valid for S sample. The flocculants are highly effective for S and L samples, and the oil–water separation efficiency increases with an increase in the concentration of inorganic cationic flocculants. There exist critical reagent concentrations for the organic cationic and the nonionic flocculants, wherein a higher or lower concentration of flocculant would cause a decrease in the treatment efficiency. Flotation is an effective approach for oil–water separation of polymer-contained wastewater from the three oilfields. The oil–water separation efficiency can be enhanced by increasing floatation agent concentration, flotation time and gas amount, and by decreasing bubble size.