Colloids and Surfaces

A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects 163 (2000) 151 – 164

www.elsevier.nl/locate/colsurfa

Separation of emulsions using fibrous fabric

B.J. Briscoe *, P.F. Luckham, J.N. Jayarajah, T. Akeju
Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemical Technology, Particle Technology Group, Imperial College of Science,
Technology and Science, Prince Consort Road, London, SW 7 2BY, UK

Received 30 November 1998; accepted 22 June 1999

Abstract

The separation of emulsions is a difficult problem which is frequently encountered in industry. Physical treatment
processes involving the use of membranes are commonly used to separate one phase from another. The study to be
described involves the determination of the efficiency of an emulsion separation process, using a fibrous membrane.
An emulsion consisting of oil (di-n-butyl phthalate) droplets in water was made to flow, at various rates through a
membrane comprising of a mat of aramid (du Pont, USA, Kevlar™ 49) fibre. An increase in the oil phase
concentration of the emulsion, causes an increase in the separation efficiency and an optimum concentration that
provides the maximum separation is identified. Increasing the flow rate and the fabric thickness, obtained by using
multiple layers of fabric, were both found to lower the separation efficiency. It was observed that the Kevlar™ fabric
had a natural saturation oil phase limit, which was reached more rapidly for the thicker fabrics. The critical oil
exposure volume (COEV), (saturation volume) was calculated to be between 0.66 – 2.82 × 10 − 3 m3 of oil per m2 of
flux area of fabric per fabric layer for different fabric thickness. However, the values are not the absolute natural
saturation limits. Calculations performed using the various separation rates, determined from the experimental
results, for each fabric thickness suggest that distinctly separated single Kevlar™ fabric units have a significantly
higher separating efficiency than multiple adjacently arranged Kevlar™ fabric units. © 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All
rights reserved.

Keywords: Liquid–liquid separation; Emulsion droplets; Fibrous fabric; Droplet capture; Demulsification

1. Introduction sion separation is encountered in practice and is

The paper reports a study of the efficiency of
oil droplet capture on a fabric surface, as a means
of emulsion separation. This technique of emul-
* Corresponding author. Tel.: + 44-171-5945559; fax: +44-
171-5895111.
E-mail address: b.briscoe@ic.ac.uk (B.J. Briscoe)
of both industrial and academic interest [1–3].
The separation of emulsions has been an issue
of concern in industry for many years. Effluent oil
removal from water, which is frequently encoun-
tered in the management of wastewater, is a very
difficult problem to effectively and economically
resolve. The problems associated with oily-waters
are mainly due to the highly variable physical and

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152 B.J. Briscoe et al. / Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochem. Eng. Aspects 163 (2000) 151–164
chemical characteristics of the oil in water dis-
persion. Usually, oily wastes are difficult to han-
dle and create problems in secondary biological
treatment facilities. On offshore platforms, water
separated from gas – oil mixtures contains dis-
persed oil droplets, which must be separated
from the water before discharge to the sea. The
most common commercial types of oil and wa-
ter separators rely primarily upon the action of
gravity, as these units are effective and also eco-
nomical [4,5]. The main constraint is to provide
sufficient residence time for the less dense oil to
float on top of the water surface. This method
becomes very much less effective, however, when
dealing with emulsions containing very small oil
droplets, and other methods must be employed
to remove the smaller drops [5,6]. Fibrous mem-
branes have been used successfully to trap and
coalesce such droplets and separate them from
water through size enlargement processes [7–13].
The selection of appropriate materials for
membrane construction in filtration units is a
significant challenge since this component largely
determines the overall separation efficiency, par-
ticularly during the initial operating period of a
filter, as well as determining the flux-pressure
drop relationship and also the operating life of
a filter [14]. A good filtration medium should
have the following characteristics in varying de-
grees, depending on the specific problem: it
should offer a minimum hydraulic resistance to
the filtrate flow, allow the easy discharge of
residue; be resistant to cake formation; should
not undergo swelling when in contact with
filtrate and washing liquid; remain heat resistant
within the ranges of filtration; have sufficient
strength to withstand the filtering pressure and
the mechanical wear and erosion; and finally
must also be capable of suppressing the exces-
sive inclusion of particles into its pores [14–18].
Different filter media are employed depending
upon the particular technique and the intended
application [17]. Examples of common filtration
media are cottons, wools, linens, glass fibres,
porous carbon, sand, diatomite, coal, quartz and
metals. Such a classification is convenient for
selection purposes, especially when resistance to
aggressive suspensions is a consideration. The
average pore size and configuration are estab-
lished from the size and form of individual ele-
ments from which the filtration medium is
manufactured. On the average, pore sizes are
greater for the larger medium elements and tend
to be more uniform. The fabrication method of
the filter also affects the average pore size and
form. Pore characteristics depend upon the
properties of fibres in woven fabrics, as well as
upon the exact methods of sintering for glass
and metal powders. In addition, pore character-
istics are greatly influenced by the separation
processes occurring within the pore passages, as
this leads to a decrease in effective pore size and
consequently an increase in the hydraulic flow
resistance [13,17]. This results from particle pen-
etration and retention within the pores of the
filtration medium.
This paper describes the separation of oil dis-
persions from water using a fibrous membrane;
the oil and the aqueous phase were chosen to be
of a comparable density (this would not gener-
ally be the case in practice — see later); an
emulsion consisting of a dispersed phase of an
oil in water was pumped through a flow cell,
separated into two parts by a fibrous membrane.
The droplets of oil adhere to the surface of the
fibre, and the efficiency of the process was de-
termined after several passes of the emulsion
through the membrane. Then, using the experi-
mental results, calculations were performed to
discover an arrangement of fabrics that gener-
ates the greatest separation within the filter ar-
rangement.
2. Equipment and materials used
The fabric materials used for were Kevlar™
49 fabrics [19] (Du Pont Aramid, USA; com-
monly used for ballistic projectile protection ar-
mour) dibutyl phthalate (Aldrich, 99%),
waxoline Red MP, acetone (BDH, 99.5%) and
de-ionised water (Purite Ltd.). A single fabric
was of approximately 250 mm in thickness; the
filaments with the fabric were ca. 7 mm in di-
ameter. This fabric was chosen primarily be-
cause of its small constituent filament diameter.
 B.J. Briscoe et al. / Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochem. Eng. Aspects 163 (2000) 151–164
Fig. 1. The equipment used for the separation of di-n-butyl phthalate dispersions in water. The flow rate of the emulsion in the inlet
of the cell was controlled by the height of the capillary head.
The relative low environmental sensitivity and
high mechanical strength were useful features.
A flow cell constructed from glass was made up
of two similar halves and was joined together
bymetal and PTFE gaskets, which also supported
the Kevlar™ fabric (Fig. 1). The horizontal length
of the glass tube when joined together was 313
mm. The glass tubes had an internal diameter of
26 mm and were 450 mm in height. Capillary
tubes of 6 mm in diameter were placed inside the
inlet (upstream) and the outlet (downstream) of
the flow cell. The flow of the emulsion through
the fabric was controlled by varying the head
height of the inlet capillary tube with respect to
the capillary head at the outlet; which was at a
fixed reference (zero) position (see Fig. 1).
153
3. Experimental procedure
The principal steps involved in the experimental
procedure were as follows.
3.1. Emulsion preparation
The emulsion was prepared by mixing 5 g of
di-n-butylphthalate in 1 l of distilled water for
about 10 min with the aid of a laboratory mixer
emulsifier [Silverson Machines Ltd., model
L2AIR]. The dibutyl phthalate contained waxo-
line red MP in the ratio of 1 g of dye to 50 g of
oil. The oil was stained red so as to enable the
amount of oil in the emulsion to be measured by
the aid of an ultraviolet visible photospectrometer
(UV-VIS 554). Although the indicator certainly
154 B.J. Briscoe et al. / Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochem. Eng. Aspects 163 (2000) 151–164

modified the interfacial properties of the oil, this
aspect was not investigated further since the
correlation of the dye was kept constant.
3.2. Insertion of fabric
A new piece of as-received Kevlar™ fabric was
inserted into the cell, and constrained using the
metal gaskets, at the commencement of each ex-
periment. On some occasions, more than one
fabric layer was inserted to increase the thickness
of the fabric filter. The active flux area of the
fabric was 5.31× 10 − 4 m2.
3.3. Experiment
The prepared emulsion was poured into a flask,
which was placed on a magnetic stirrer and was
stirred constantly, and pumped into the flow cell
via the peristaltic pump. (The emulsion in the feed
was constantly stirred so that the oil did not
separate and also so that the oil drop size distri-
bution may be preserved.) The emulsion was then
flowed through the cell (fabric) and the residue
was drained at the other end (downstream) of the
cell, into a beaker. Samples (10 ml) of this residue
emulsion, for the first pass, were taken for analy-
sis. The residue emulsion was then re-emulsified
and pumped back into the cell and samples from
the downstream of this pass were collected for
analysis. This process was repeated several times
and samples were acquired, from the downstream,
after each pass.
When the fabric had reached the saturation
point, i.e. no flow of emulsion occurred across the
fabric, a vacuum pump was used at the down-
stream to enhance the flow. The vacuum pump
was operated for a short period; and unblocked
some of the pores in the fabric by releasing the
captured oil into the effluent stream.
centration of oil remaining in the emulsion after
each cycle. A wavelength value of 530 nm for
repetitive scanning was used; the instrument was
calibrated against emulsions of various oil phase
composition and thus the concentration of oil in
the test emulsion could be readily computed.
4. Results and discussion
The results acquired by varying different
parameters are discussed below. Firstly, the effi-
ciency of the separation process for a given con-
centration of the emulsion, using a single
Kevlar™ fabric layer, is described. In the subse-
quent sections, the effects of varying the initial oil
phase concentrations, the flow rates and the
Kevlar™ fabric thickness on the efficiency of the
separation process are considered. In the latter
part of this section, the relative separation effi-
ciency of single and multiple Kevlar™ fabric ar-
rangements (units) are estimated using the
experimental data.
4.1. Efficiency of the separation process; general
effects
Fig. 2 shows a graph of the percentage (mass)
separation of oil against the number of passes of
the emulsion (initial concentration of 5 g l − 1 of

3.4. Analysis

To 5 ml of each sample were added 2 ml of

acetone to solubilise the emulsion thus forming
one phase, which was pinkish red in colour (due Fig. 2. The separation achieved for a 5 g l − 1 of emulsion at a
to the dye in the oil phase). The spectrophotome- constant flow rate at capillary head height of 100 mm after
ter (UV-VIS 554) was used to determine the con- each pass through a single fabric.
 B.J. Briscoe et al. / Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochem. Eng. Aspects 163 (2000) 151–164
Fig. 3. (a) The mass of oil removed for various initial concen-
trations of oil, at a constant flow rate at capillary head height
of 100 mm, after each pass through a single fabric. (b) The
amount of oil separated (mass percentage) for various initial
concentrations of oil, at a constant flow rate at capillary head
height of 100 mm, after each pass through a single fabric.
water) across the fabric at a constant flow rate.
This graph indicates that there was an increase in
the amount of oil separated after each pass due to
the capture of oil droplets onto the fabric surface.
At the end of the ninth pass, 61% oil separation
had taken place.
As can be seen from these data, the separation
increases linearly with the increase in the number
of passes; however, the first pass produced the
most marked separation. After a certain number
of passes, there would probably be no increase in
the amount of oil absorbed by the Kevlar™ fab-
ric. Fig. 3 illustrates this saturation phenomenon
and the origin of which is discussed below (Sec-
155
tion 4.2). It should be noted that the dibutyl
phthalate (density of 1044 Kg m − 3 at 20°C) has a
similar density to that of the water (1000 Kg m − 3
at 20°C) and hence there is likely to be little or no
gravity separation occurs within the filter. In
many other instances, the oil would be less dense
and migrate out of the filter to the top of the cell,
thus increasing the separation; this would natu-
rally be an important component of the overall
separation process.
4.2. The effect of 6arying oil phase concentration
on separation
In these experiments, the total separation of oil,
after each pass was monitored for different initial
concentrations of the emulsion. This included the
oil entrapped on the fabric as well as the filtered
oil retained in the upstream. Thus to determine
the total separation in the flow cell, the residue (in
downstream) emulsion was collected and
emulsified before recycling back into the up-
stream, whereas the filtered oil in the inlet re-
mained at the upstream position.
Fig. 3a and b show the effects of using different
initial concentrations of the emulsion upon the
total efficiency of the separation process. As may
be seen, the curves are either linear or linear
initially and then follow a power law relationship,
with the index being less than one.
Further, plotting the percentage separation (af-
ter nine passes) as a function of the initial concen-
tration of the oil (Fig. 4) indicates that the
separation efficiency increases with the initial con-
centration of the oil (0–5 g l − 1) until it achieves
an optimum value (ca. 5 g l − 1), after which the
separation efficiency starts to decrease (5–10
g l − 1). This trend is probably due to the establish-
ment of a critical oil exposure volume (COEV) of
the fabric (COEV is discussed in greater detail
later). The COEV is naturally achieved much
more rapidly for the higher initial concentrations
of oil than the lower ones (Fig. 3a). With the 2.5
g dibutyl phthalate/litre of water emulsion, the
amount of oil separated after the ninth pass was
0.82 g. When the concentration was doubled, i.e.
5 g l − 1 emulsion, the amount of oil separated
after nine passes was almost four times that
156 B.J. Briscoe et al. / Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochem. Eng. Aspects 163 (2000) 151–164
Fig. 4. The amount of oil separation (%) after nine passes
through a single fabric for various initial concentrations of
emulsion at constant flow with capillary head height at 100
mm.
amount (3.06 g), while that for the 10 g l − 1
emulsion was just 1.6 times (4.8 g) the amount of
oil separated for the 5 g l − 1 emulsion. Hence, the
separation efficiency starts to increase a great deal
as the initial concentration increases, and then
gradually starts to decrease as the emulsion be-
comes more concentrated.
Fig. 4 indicates that the separation efficiency
decreases (5 – 10 g l − 1) after achieving a maximum
(5 g l − 1); the percentage separation after nine
passes for the 5 g l − 1 emulsion and 10 g l − 1
emulsion was 61 and 48%, respectively. Fig. 5, on
the other hand, shows that with an increase in the
initial concentration of the emulsion, there is still
Fig. 5. Mass of oil removed after nine passes through a single
fabric for various initial concentrations of emulsion at con-
stant flow at capillary head height of 100 mm.
Fig. 6. Fraction of oil separation after each pass through a
single fabric for an initial concentration of emulsion of 5 g l − 1
at various capillary head height (increasing flow rates) of 70,
100 and 130 mm.
an increase in the amount of oil separated. This
trend follows power law relation. From Fig. 5,
however, the actual figures in terms of the total
mass separated were 3.06 and 4.8 g for 5 and 10 g
l − 1, respectively. This suggests that even though
the separation efficiency had fallen, the amount of
oil being separated was still increasing, but by a
lesser amount. This could be due to the release of
the trapped oil in the fabric into the effluent
stream (downstream) as a result of saturation of
the fabric (see later for explanation of COEV).
4.3. Efficiency of separation as a function of flow
rate
The effect of varying the emulsion flow rate
upon the separation efficiency with a 5 g l − 1
emulsion is illustrated in Fig. 6. It appears that
the greatest amount of separation was achieved
with the lowest flow rate (70 mm of capillary head
height). At the higher flow rates (i.e. higher capil-
lary heads) the separation is less but increases
approximately linearly with increasing number of
passes. However, for the lowest flow rate the
separation increases in a power law manner, with
an index less than one. At the flow rate of 70 mm
of capillary head height, a separation of about
83% is achieved after nine passes, while at a flow
rate of 130 mm of capillary head height, the
separation is about 43% (a factor of two less).
This is likely to be because, at the slower flow
rates, the emulsion droplets had more time within
 B.J. Briscoe et al. / Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochem. Eng. Aspects 163 (2000) 151–164
Fig. 7. Total amount of oil separated in the flow cell after nine passes through a single fabric for an initial concentration of emulsion
of 5 g l − 1 at various capillary head height flow rates.
the fibres to deposit and coalesce, thereby forming
larger captured droplets. These larger droplets,
due to their large size become absorbed within
thepores of the Kevlar™ fabric, enabling a greater
separation to be attained. With the lowest flow
rate, the first four passes produced about 72%
separation while the next five produced only a
further 11% separation in total. There was only
about a 2.6% additional separation attained, be-
tween the passes 6 and 9. These values suggest
that by the sixth pass, the fabric had become
almost fully saturated with oil and an increase in
the number of passes thereafter would not yield
an appreciable additional amount of separation.
This is also the case for the experiments per-
formed with higher flow rates. Also at higher flow
rates the droplets tend to detach from the fabric.
The total amount of oil separated (g) after nine
passes against the flow rate, i.e. the height of
capillary head (mm), is plotted in Fig. 7. This
figure shows an increase in the flow rate results in
a decrease in the separation, which is of a linear
nature.
157
4.4. The effects of increasing fabric thickness
The effects of increasing the thickness of the
fabric, on the separation, were also investigated.
The experiments were performed by binding two,
three and four Kevlar™ fabrics together, to in-
crease the thickness of the total fabric within the
flow cell. Also, the number of passes was in-
creased to 18, instead of nine and a vacuum pump
was used to enable the flow of emulsion through
the fabric when there was no (or very little) flow.
The vacuum pump was only used for a fraction of
a second and only once for each fabric thickness.
It was deduced, from Fig. 8, that after a certain
number of passes, the pores of the fabric became
blocked, thereby restricting the passage of emul-
sion from one side of the fabric to the other. This
condition is termed here as the ‘critical oil expo-
sure 6olume (COEV)’ of the fabric. This COEV is
defined as the maximum volume of oil retained
per unit area of the flux (i.e. surface area of the
exposed fabric at the upstream) per layer of fab-
158 B.J. Briscoe et al. / Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochem. Eng. Aspects 163 (2000) 151–164
ric. Following the attainment of the COEV limit,
the fabric is unable to accommodate any more oil
and due to the constant pumping of the emulsion
across the fabrics, the oil already captured is now
extensively released into the effluent stream,
partly due to the flow direction of emulsion, thus
contaminating the downstream and lowering the
overall separation efficiency on the filter. It should
be noted that although the vacuum pump did
release some of the oil into the effluent stream,
this effect was minimal, since the separation con-
tinues to decrease with the increase in the number
of passes even after the cessation of the use of the
vacuum pump as can be noted from the Fig. 8.
A graph of the separation (% mass) achieved
versus the filter thickness is depicted in Fig. 8. It
shows that the separation increases almost lin-
early with increasing number of passes of emul-
sion across the fabric until it reaches a maximum.
From this maximum value the average amount of
oil retained, per unit area of the flux, in each layer
Fig. 8. Effect of increasing thickness of Kevlar fabric on
separation for a 5 g l − 1 emulsion at constant flow rate of 150
mm of capillary head height. The vacuum pump (connected
downstream) was turned on for a short period (fraction of a
second) when there was no flow through the fabrics; this was
at pass number 12, 9, 6 and 3 for one, two, three and four
fabric layers, respectively. This action unblocked some of the
pores in the fabric by removing some of the oil into the
downstream. The vacuum pump was used at the peak points.
The maxima on each of the graph represents the COEV limit.
The COEV was achieved at passes 3, 6, 9 and 12 for fabric
thickness four, three, two and one, respectively. The COEV is
in the range of 0.66–2.82 m3 (m2 per fabric layer) − 1.
of the fabric may be determined.
Once the fabric attains the COEV limit, some
of the already captured oil on the fabric is re-
leased into the effluent stream thus significantly
reducing the separation efficiency. This phe-
nomenon was also noted by Okada and Akagi
[20] during their experiments, which involved the
separation of oil from oil-in-water mixtures by
flow through a bed of glass beads. They observed
the coalescence behaviour of oil droplets in the
bed photographically. During the initial period
there was very little separation but after 30 min
80% of the oil had been removed by the bed. At
this juncture, a thin layer of oil was observed in
the downstream and after 150 min, this thin layer
of oil was pushed out further downstream, and it
migrated on to the upper surface of the down-
stream wall; the oil they used was less dense than
the continuous fluid. The form of their data for
the separation efficiency versus time was similar
to that shown in Fig. 8.
Using a single layer of fabric, for an emulsion
of 5 g l − 1 of water, the critical decrease in the
separation efficiency occurred by the 13th pass
and the efficiency decreased even further until the
last pass, to an efficiency of about 12.5%. The
highest separation was achieved at the 12th pass,
with a 31% recovery. With two, three and four
fabrics this maximum was achieved after passes 9,
6 and 3, respectively, yet the separation in all
cases was between 1.47 and 1.68 g of oil (Table 1).
This shows that an increase in the fabric thickness
does not markedly influence the maximum
amount of oil retained within the fabrics.
Correspondingly, the value of the critical oil
exposure volume (COEV) decreases with the in-
crease in the fabric thickness, as is depicted in Fig.
9. This shows a power law relationship, with a
negative index of approximately unity. This result
is quite unexpected because an increase in the
fabric thickness, might be expected to yield a
greater capture of oil on the fibre surfaces thus
increasing the separation efficiency, i.e. four layers
of fabric should perhaps, in theory, separate four
times as much oil as one fabric layer; the current
results show otherwise (Table 1 and Fig. 9).
This phenomenon is clearly due to the increase
in the axial (with respect to the flow direction)
 B.J. Briscoe et al. / Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochem. Eng. Aspects 163 (2000) 151–164 159

Table 1
Critical oil exposure volume (COEV) for different thickness of fabricsa

No. of fabric Total mass of oil recov- Total volume of oil re- Volume of oil retained COEV (m3 of oil per m2
(thickness) ered (g) in fabrics tained in fabrics (m3) per fabric layer fabric flux per fabric
(m3 fabric layer−1) layer)
(a) (b) (c) =[1.044/(a)]×10−6 (d) = (c)/(a) (e) = (d)/5.309×10(4
(×10−6) (×10−6) (×10(3)

1 1.563 1.499 1.499 2.82

2 1.597 1.531 0.766 1.44
3 1.679 1.627 0.542 1.02
4 1.469 1.408 0.352 0.66

a
Density of DBP = 1.044 g cm−3; Flux diameter (diameter of inlet of cell) =26 mm; Flux surface area = p*d 2/4 =5.309×10−4
2
m.

Fig. 9. Critical oil exposure volume (m3 of oil retained in fabrics per m2 of flux area of fabric per layer of fabric).

surface provided by the addition of extra fabric
layers. This additional surface area may attract
more oil droplets on the fibre surfaces, and an oil
drop moving axially envelopes these smaller
droplets and grows in size. As illustrated schemat-
ically in Fig. 10, the released droplet from the
four fabric layers is much larger than that of a
single fabric layer. This means that a larger vol-
ume of oil is released into the effluent stream from
the four fabric layer arrangement and this in turn
reduces the separation efficiency, Fig. 9.
The mechanism by which the droplet grows in
the fabric is probably as follows. (Note: di-n-butyl
phthalate (DBP) does not readily wet the
Kevlar™ fabric.) When the emulsion is passed
across the fabric, some of the initial micro-
droplets adhere to the surfaces of the fibre
whereas others move into the fabric through the
pores and are captured by the fibres within the
fabric matrix. The droplets that have adhered to
the fibre facing the inlet stream grow by coalesc-
ing with either the neighbouring droplets or with
the micro-droplets from the emulsion, when the
peripheries of the droplets touch and after the
thinning of the water film between these droplets.
As the droplet grows, the capillary forces that
hold the droplet to the fibre decreases and conse-
quently the body force of the droplet increases.
160 B.J. Briscoe et al. / Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochem. Eng. Aspects 163 (2000) 151–164

Since the flow is in the axial direction, this enlarged
droplet is either released into the inlet stream or
forced into the fabric due the axial pressure exerted
by the flow. When this droplet enters the fabric
matrix, it envelopes those droplets already adhered
onto the fibre which are in its path and coalesces
with them and grows larger. This process continues
until the drop reaches the end of the fabric where
it is released into the effluent stream thus decreas-
ing the separation efficiency of the filter. If the axial
distance of the fabric is increased, i.e. by increasing
the fabric thickness, then it is more likely that the
size of the droplet released into the effluent stream
would be larger as is shown schematically in Fig.
10. This therefore means that the saturation limit
observed from the plots are not the true or ideal
saturation of the fabrics. Basically, the drops pass-
ing through the large thickness fabric scavenge the
resident drops.
4.5. Analysis of separation efficiency and the
configuration of the fabric (Table 2)
The percentage separation rate per pass was

Fig. 10. The above diagram shows the growth of a small droplet as it passes through the fabric. The growth is due to the coalescence
with other droplets on fabric. With the four fabric layers the eventual size of the droplet released into effluent stream is very much
larger than that of a similar droplet in a single fabric.
 B.J. Briscoe et al. / Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochem. Eng. Aspects 163 (2000) 151–164 161

separation rates thus obtained is shown in Table

Fig. 11. Percentage separation per pass against fabric thickness
for a 5 g l − 1 emulsion at constant flow rate. These were
determined by the slopes of the curves in Fig. 8, between the
initial and the first maximum points.
obtained by taking the slope between the initial
pass and the peak of each curve, from Fig. 8, for
the respective fabric thickness. A table of the
2, and represented in Fig. 11 which shows that
increasing the thickness of the fabric yields an
increase in the separation rate. The percentage
separation rate per pass increases steeply as the
thickness is increased. It should be noted that this
section deals with the percentage separation rate
per pass whereas the previous section dealt with
the absolute value of separation of oil per fabric
layer. Also, for the different configurations stated
below, the same experimental conditions of Fig. 8
is assumed.
The separation rates calculated can now be
used to infer the separation efficiency for various
configurations of the fabric arrangements, as is
shown schematically in Figs. 12–14. Fig. 12
shows two potential fabric arrangements in the
flow cell; for the case where two single fabrics are
separated by a distinct gap, so that the emulsion
is separated twice in one pass, (for a 5 g of oil l − 1
of water emulsion 2.38% (Table 2) is separated

Fig. 12. Comparison of calculated separation efficiency between two single Kevlar fabric unit and one two layered Kevlar fabric
units using the data from Table 2 at various stages (passes) of the experiment. The first illustration shows the concentration of the
oil when passed through two single fabrics spaced apart (the results of the single fabric from Fig. 8 and Table 2 are used); and the
latter shows the relative effect of two fabrics bound together (the results of two fabrics from Fig. 8 and Table 2 is used).

Fig. 13. Comparison of calculated separation efficiency between three single Kevlar fabric unit and one three layered Kevlar fabric
units. The first illustration shows the concentration of the oil when passed through three fabrics spaced equidistant apart (the results
of the single fabric from Fig. 8 and Table 2 are used); and the latter shows the relative effect when three fabrics are bound together
(the results of three fabrics from Fig. 8 and Table 2 is used).
162 B.J. Briscoe et al. / Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochem. Eng. Aspects 163 (2000) 151–164

Fig. 14. Comparison of calculated separation efficiency between four single Kevlar fabric unit and one four layered Kevlar fabric
units. The first illustration shows the concentration of the oil when passed through four fabrics spaced equidistant apart (the results
of the single fabric from Fig. 8 and Table 2 are used); and the latter shows the relative effect when four fabrics are bound together
(the results of four fabrics from Fig. 8 and Table 2 is used).

Table 2 passes (Fig. 8). Also, in comparison to the two

Separation rates for different Kevlar fabric thicknessa
Number of Kevlar fabrics 1 2 3 4 system achieves a much higher separation; the
Mass separation (%) per 2.34 3.689 5.942 9.234
pass
a
The mass % separation per pass was deduced from the
corresponding slopes for different fabric thickness from Fig. 8.
A linear relationship was assumed between the initial and the
first maximum point.
when it flows through the first fabric, and the same
percentage is recovered when it passes through the
second) and therefore the separation efficiency is
twice that of one single fabric system. Fig. 12 also
shows the concentration of the emulsion leaving
the filter system after passes 2, 9 and 12; the
concentration of the emulsion are 4.54, 3.24 and
2.80 g l − 1 respectively, at which point the COEV
is attained. The second arrangement shows the
same elements as described above but instead of
two single fabrics, one double layered fabric is
used. In this arrangement, the respective concen-
tration of the emulsion leaving the cell after passes
2 and 9 are 4.63 and 3.56 g l − 1, which are greater
than the corresponding values for two single fabric
system, hence the latter system is more efficient
than the former.
In Fig. 13, three single fabric units and one three
layered fabric units are compared. Again, the three
single fabric units separates more than the three
layered unit, after passes 1 and 6. The former
arrangement reaches the COEV after the 12th pass
whereas the latter reaches it in half the number of
single fabric system (Fig. 12), the three single fabric
separation after one and 12 passes are, respectively,
4.6 and 44% for the two single fabric system and
7 and 58% for the three single fabric arrangement.
Fig. 14 compares a four single fabric arrange-
ment with that of a single four layered system.
Interestingly, both systems separate the same
amounts after each pass, as a result of which both
systems are identical in their behaviour. Since the
four layered arrangement reaches the COEV limit
much quicker, hence this system is inefficient since
the separation efficiency decreases following the
COEV limit as explained earlier. The separation
efficiency of the four single fabric system is 9 and
69% after one and twelve passes, respectively.
Again comparing this with the separation effi-
ciency of the other systems described in Figs. 12
and 13 shows that the four single fabric system is
overall the most efficient system. Finally, it can
be concluded that greater separation can be
achieved by placing many fabrics apart, in the flow
cell, rather than binding them together. It may be,
however, that the system with the adjacent fabrics
will produce large drops in the effluent and hence
produce more extensive gravitational separation
outside the filter.
5. Conclusions
An experimental study of the separation of an
 B.J. Briscoe et al. / Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochem. Eng. Aspects 163 (2000) 151–164
oil/water emulsion using fibrous membranes is
described. It was observed that the separation of
the oil increases almost linearly with the in-
crease in the number of passes until a maximum
was reached (Figs. 2, 3a and b). The greatest
amount of oil recovered with the filter, after
nine passes, was from the emulsion that had the
highest initial concentration of oil, as is illus-
trated in Fig. 3a. From this figure, it is apparent
that the mass of oil separated increases with the
increasing of the initial emulsion concentration.
Further, the separation efficiency increases
with the initial concentration of the oil (0–5 g
l − 1) until it achieves an optimum value (5 g
l − 1), after which the separation efficiency starts
to decrease (5 – 10 g l − 1). This trend is probably
due to the existence of a critical oil exposure
volume (COEV) for the fabric.
The separation in the filter increases markedly
with the decreasing of the flow rates (Fig. 6),
and in a linear pattern (Fig. 7). At a flow rate
of 70 mm of capillary head height, a separation
of about 83% was achieved after nine passes,
while at a flow rate of 130 mm of capillary
head height, the separation was about 43% (a
factor of two less). This was attributed to the
fact that, at slower flow rates, the emulsion has
more time to settle, coalesce and migrate,
thereby forming larger droplets. These droplets,
because of their large size become absorbed
within the pores of the Kevlar™ fabric enabling
a greater separation to be attained.
Increasing the thickness of the fabric, by us-
ing multiple adjacent layers, caused lower but
more rapid separations. After a certain number
of passes, the fabric pores become saturated
with oil, and an increasing flow of emulsion
through it causes the oil already adhered to the
fabric to be forced out into the effluent stream,
thereby lowering the separation efficiency in the
filter. The number of passes for this situation to
occur was found to be different for the different
fabric thickness. For the single Kevlar™ fabric
unit, this was at the 12th pass, while for two,
three and four Kevlar™ fabric units, the num-
ber of passes was found to be nine, six and
three, respectively. The critical oil exposure vol-
ume (COEV), the volume of oil at the satura-
163
tion limit of fabric, was calculated to be
between 0.66 and 2.82 m3 per m2 of flux area of
fabric per layer of fabric of oil for the different
Kevlar™ fabric thickness and it increased in
value with the increasing of the fabric thickness.
The critical oil exposure volume (COEV) de-
creases with the increase in the fabric thickness,
as is depicted in Fig. 9. It is a power law rela-
tionship with a negative index, in Fig. 9 this
index is approximately equal to − 1. This result
is unexpected as an increase in the fabric thick-
ness, or rather in the fibre surface, should yield
a greater capture of oil on the fibres thus in-
creasing the separation efficiency, i.e. one would
expect four layers of fabric to absorb four times
as much oil as one fabric layer and therefore
increase the separation. But the current results
show otherwise (Table 1 and Fig. 9). This phe-
nomenon may be attributed to the increase in
the axially positioned capture surface provided
by the addition of extra fabric layers as is
shown in Fig. 10. This therefore indicates that
the maximum saturation values of the various
fabric configurations are a function of the oper-
ating conditions.
Calculations were also performed to determine
the separation rates (mass separation % per
pass) for different fabric thickness before the
COEV limit. These were obtained as 2.4, 3.7,
5.9 and 9.2% separation/pass for one, two, three
and four contacting fabric layers, respectively
(Table 2). Finally, different fabric configura-
tions, on the filter, in the flow cell have been
considered and the best configuration for maxi-
mum separation was determined using the mass
percentage separation per pass values above and
also the COEV limit. The values deduced
showed that it would be more effective to adopt
a single Kevlar™ fabric unit instead of two or
three fabric layer combined units (Figs. 12 and
13). The single and the four fabric units
achieved similar separation (Fig. 14). Yet, the
single fabric unit would be the best option be-
cause the COEV is achieved during the 12th
pass whereas for the four fabric layers this was
reached at the third pass; the separation effi-
ciency, on the filter, decreases significantly after
the separation reaches the COEV limit.
164 B.J. Briscoe et al. / Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochem. Eng. Aspects 163 (2000) 151–164
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