Since industrialization, oil spills and industrial organic pollutants have posed a serious threat to human health, marine and surface ecosystems. Pollution caused by oil spills, industrial wastewater and the discharge of hazardous substances has been recognized as one of the major environmental problems.
In addition to oily wastewater, pollution from oil depots where diesel and petrol are stored, wastewater from industrial processes containing oily substances, pollution from harmful particulate matter in the atmosphere and pollution from harmful heavy metals on the surface and underground have all become a serious global challenge.
In recent years, with the introduction of new materials and technologies, the application of foamed materials and porous structure materials in the field of air filtration, particle adsorption and separation, oil-water separation and other inter-media filtration and separation has become a hot spot, making an important contribution to saving the environmental crisis.
What is a commercial sponge?
Today, underwater robots are expected to carry out oil spill clean-up operations that can prevent oil from spreading and can remove more than 90% of the oil droplets from wastewater in less than ten minutes. The filter material that undertakes the task of separating oil from water is the familiar sponge, which, after capturing the oil from the waste water, can be treated with a solvent that releases the oil from the sponge. Once the oil has been squeezed out of the sponge, it can be reused dozens of times without losing its effectiveness.
So, what is filtration? Filtration is the separation of solids and fluids by means of a porous material that keeps the solids and fluids from passing through. It is important to note that fluids include both liquids and gases. Filters can be chemical, biological or physical. Filtration is an important characteristic of the foam.
Filter sponges are also known as mesh sponges, bursting sponges and dustproof sponges. Sponges are capable of absorbing more than 30-100 times their own weight in oil and can be used to clean up oil spills cheaply and effectively without harming marine life. The sponge can be used continuously by suction, so the sponge eats water and squeezes out oil.
Today’s commercial sponges, such as polyurethane sponges, polyolefin sponges, melamine sponges and activated carbon composite sponges, are of great interest in the field of crude oil removal from seawater and industrial wastewater due to their low cost, high porosity three-dimensional (3D) structure, low density, excellent mechanical properties and remarkable reusability.
However, the amphiphilic nature of commercial sponges limits their use in oil absorption treatment processes. In order to improve their oil absorption performance, modifications are needed to obtain sponges that are hydrophobic, lipophilic and selective in filtering harmful substances. These new, efficient, low-cost sponges have shown strong commercial use in oil-water separation, air purification, and the extraction and separation of hazardous substances.
Metrological properties of filter foams
Net density, expressed in kg/m³, is the weight of a given volume of foam product. It is the key quality characteristic of filter foams. Higher density foams are stronger and more stable than lower density foams.
- Compressive strength
The compressive strength of a foam material is the amount of stress required to compress the material to a predetermined percentage of its original thickness (e.g. 40%). Filter foams with a low compression modulus are softer and more pliable than those with a high compression strength.
- Elongation at break
Elongation at break is a measure of a material’s ability to deform. It is determined in tensile testing, where a sample of material is stretched under controlled conditions until it breaks. Elongation at break is the rate of elongation at which fracture occurs and is expressed as a percentage of the original sample length.
- Tensile Strength
Tensile strength is another property determined in tensile testing. A sample of material is stretched to fracture. The stress at which fracture occurs is the tensile strength of the material.
- PPI of filter foam
PPI is the number of pores per inch, i.e., the number of openings per linear inch. Aquarium and aquarium filters are foams with different PPI’s that identify the number of cells within the foam. Therefore, a low count such as PPI 10 means that there are fewer pores within the foam and therefore the bubble pores are larger and open, providing more space for air particles to pass through. Alternatively, the higher the PPI count, the denser the foam, the less fluid and the more restrictive it is.
Important applications of filter foams
Foaming and porous filter materials are key materials and common materials widely used in air, liquid, chemical, environmental protection, energy, automotive and other industries and people’s livelihood. Filter materials (filter equipment, filter elements, filter materials, filter aids, etc.) have a very wide range of applications in automotive, petrochemical, environmental protection and upstream and downstream industries, which are important for the safe and reliable operation of processes and equipment, the improvement of production efficiency, energy consumption It is also a key technical material for air pollution control and water pollution control systems.
Material classification of filter foams
Polyurethane foam, melamine foam and polyolefin with activated carbon sponge are common filter materials and are widely used in everyday filtration projects. This is in contrast to other similar technologies being developed, which tend to be expensive, difficult to scale up or require the use of special materials such as carbon nanotubes and graphene. The wide availability of this material and the simplicity of the manufacturing process means that the technology can be scaled up quickly.
Melamine foam
An ultra-lightweight, porous material used in a variety of products including household cleaning pads and insulation materials. Melamine sponges are modified by immersing them in a solution containing a small amount of silicone rubber called PDMS and the solvent hexane. The thin coating of this process repels water and allows oil to be absorbed into the sponge, making the material super hydrophobic and super lipophilic. Researchers have demonstrated that this new material can remove oils and organic chemical contaminants that are immiscible (not easily mixed) with water, such as hydrocarbons, coolants and insulating fluids from power transformers, carcinogenic compounds called PCBs and certain pesticides. It can be reused many times and can easily be used to clean up oil spills and industrial chemical spills.
Porous materials are used in a wide range of applications and wherever there is filtration they contribute to.
1, refineries
2, pivot irrigation
3, landfills – leachate
4, artificial snow
5, mining industry
6, agricultural irrigation
7, power generation and hydroelectric dams
8, landscaping and golf course irrigation
9, fish farms
10, paper industry
11, HVAC systems
12, grey water applications
13, seawater filtration
14, cooling towers, side and full flow applications
15, ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis protection
16, ballast water filtration
17 Oil industry
For more information about SINOYQX melamine foam and its filtration applictions, please reach us atsales@sinoyqx.com, or voice to us: +86-28-8411-1861.
About SINOYQX
SINOYQX is a huge chemical entity based on gas chain, manufacturing urea (AdBlue), melamine, melamine foam, melamine cyanurate (MCA), polyphosphate (MPP), polyvinyl butyral resin (low-polymerization PVB resin), and other chemical products. The annual capacity of AdBlue is 150,000Litters and 600,000Tons of Granule; Melamine 50,000Tons; Melamine foam is 200,000M3, the Melamine Cyanurate (MCA) is 50,000Tons. And the Transulate (an Equivalent of 3M Thinsulate) is 20,000 Sqm, per day.
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