Application of Guar Gum in Brine Clarification and Oily Water Treatment

The increasing amount of oil wastewater is causing serious damage to the environment. Oily water is a worrisome by-product of the oil industry due to its growing volume in mature basins and complex chemical composition. Low-cost polymers are being used as alternative materials to treat oily waters after treatment by conventional methods, oil and grease (O&G) concentration being the primary parameter for final disposal. In this respect, guar gum can be used to treat petroleum-contaminated waters, with the advantage of being a low-cost, highly-hydrophilic natural polymer. In this study, guar gum, under specific conditions, shapes itself into three-dimensional structures with interesting physicochemical properties. The salting out effect occurs with reticulation of the polymeric chains by borate ions and in the presence of electrolytes, reducing the solubility of the polymeric network in the solution and leading to an electrolyte- and polymer-rich phase. When the guar gum gel was prepared in situ in the produced water, after the salting out effect, the oil was imprisoned in the interstices of the collapsed gel. The gelling guar gum was highly efficient in synthetic oily waters. In the case of initial O&G above 100ppm, the oil removal percentage was above 90%.