Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2018-2019).

Oily wastewater is an inevitable byproduct of many industries worldwide including petroleum refining, metalx000D
finishing, food processing, edible oil production, paint manufacturing, and wood preservation industries. Asx000D
one of the largest global exporters of food and wood products with the second largest recoverable oilx000D
reservoirs, Canada has almost all the industries that can produce hazardous oily wastewater. Water usage in thex000D
oil sands industry, in particular, is the biggest concern. In the steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) forx000D
bitumen extraction steam is injected into the ground to decrease the viscosity of bitumen and to facilitate itsx000D
extraction. The mixture of water and bitumen then returns to the surface where the bitumen and water arex000D
separated using a series of conventional gravity, flotation, and oil skimming processes to remove the bitumenx000D
and residual oil from the produced water. These techniques are not eco-friendly and suffer from inefficientx000D
treatment, high capital and maintenance cost, generation of large volumes of sludge, and high energyx000D
consumption. Hence, the focus of this research project is to develop a sustainable, cost-efficient andx000D
environmentally-friendly technique by utilizing natural organic adsorbents.x000D
Adsorbents originated from agricultural by-products are particularly advantageous due to their low-cost andx000D
high availability as starting materials. The high content of carbohydrate polymers in these materials increasesx000D
their adsorption capacity through a series of chemical reactions between abundant hydroxyl groups ofx000D
carbohydrate polymers and water contaminants. Wheat straw is one of the most available agricultural waste inx000D
Canada. Alberta alone yields 5.6 Mt of wheat, barley, oat and flax straw even after utilizing some for soilx000D
conservation and livestock feeding. Utilization of the waste wheat straw as an adsorbent for the treatment ofx000D
oily wastewaters will be an innovative technique since the system works on the principle of 'waste by waste',x000D
i.e., the system utilizes waste straw for treating the wastewater from which it generates treated water along withx000D
saturated straw with oil which again is a waste but can be handled easily since it is biodegradable.