Petroleum refining industry uses large volumes of water. The water demand is up to 3 m3 of water for every ton of petroleum processed (US EPA, 1980, 1982; WB, 1998). Almost 56% of this quantity is used in cooling systems, 16% in boiling systems, 19% in production processes and the rest in auxiliary operations. The water usage in the Mexican refineries is almost 155 millions m3 per year; it is 2...

Membrane separation is known as an efficient technique for the oily wastewater treatment. Therefore, in the present study, sulfonated poly (ether ether ketone) (SPEEK) was introduced into the polysulfone (PSF) solution in order to enhance the hydrophilicity and the membrane structure for the oil–water separation. The hollow fiber membranes were fabricated via a phase-inversion process. The memb...

Smart materials with reversible wettability have attracted a lot of attention for application in sewage treatment. In this work, pH-responsive polymer was prepared via the one-step free radical polymerization 3-(trimethoxysilyl) acrylate and 2-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate. The obtained then coated hydrogenated styrene–ethylene–butadiene–styrene block copolymer to endow material switchable su...