Experimental analysis of chemical demulsification of cutting oil

The wastewater produced by the metal industry is often present in the form of oil-in-water (O/W) or water-inoil (W/O) emulsions. These fluids contain a certain amount of valuable oil that can be recovered in the recycling process. Therefore, the development of novel, efficient, and low cost processes for the treatment of metalworking fluid is necessary. Demulsification to separate oil/water mixtures is a very interesting option because it allows the recovery and reuse of the lubricant oil and effects in cleaner, easily treatable wastewater.Chemical destabilization is the most common way of demulsification of metalworking fluids. As an example, inorganic salts can be used as demulsifiers. In the presented work the efficiency of treatment of cutting emulsions with chemical demulsification with usage of aluminum sulfate (IV) is described. The emulsion was prepared with Emulgol-ES12 self-emulsyfing oil delivered by Orlen S.A. In the research the feasibility of the demulsifier was checked. The novel in this paper is determination of the optimal dosage of emulsifier using the TurbiscanLab® apparatus. It is relatively quick and precise method that can be applied in the industry.