Open Access

Stas Besliu

• This investigation is focused on analysing pressurized CO2 injection as a technique for breaking oil-in-water emulsions and proposing an efficient substitute for conventional methods. The destabilisation mechanisms, flotation rate acceleration, and segregation of phases in the system undergo considerable improvement through CO2 microbubbles formation. The ability to effectively separate and isolate aqueous and oil phases is important for treating industrial wastewater, hence optimizing waste reduction and resource recovery. The laboratory studies explore various operational parameters, such as CO₂ consumption efficiency, pressure variations, and residence time, in order to optimize splitting in various emulsion mixtures. The studies proved to effectively provide up to 95% total organic carbon (TOC) reduction, particularly achieved in combination with prolonged flotation and settling. Significantly, treatment by CO2-induced separations proved to have most efficiency in synthetic Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (SDS)-based emulsions and in industrial scenarios such as in cooling lubricants. In addition, prolonging flotation time to an overnight timeframe significantly increased TOC reduction in the case of the SDS emulsion. The presented results offer a new look over the experimental development of separation technologies, demonstrating the effective splitting of emulsions by injecting CO2 without additional pressure input and thus its feasibility in an industrial setting. In addition to providing a chemical-free separation alternative, this method offers the advantage of reduced energy input and the potential for CO2 recapture and reuse as well as oil recovery.