Demulsification of oily wastewater driven by an amine functionalized cellulose derived from waste cotton textiles.

An ANPC demulsifier for oily wastewater (OW) was obtained through amine functionalization of regenerated cellulose derived from waste cotton textiles by a hydrothermal process. ANPC was systematically analyzed through morphology, composition, chemical properties, and interfacial properties. The results showed that ANPC had good interfacial activity and a strong ability to reduce the interfacial tension. The bottle test displayed that the light transmittance of separated water (LT) could reach 92.5% and the corresponding oil removal rate (ORR) was 99.4% when the ANPC dosage was 125 mg/L at room temperature. Importantly, ANPC could be adopted at a wide pH range and high salinity. Also, the possible demulsification mechanism was explored by wettability, interfacial activity, interfacial film self-assembly, dynamic interfacial tension, Zeta potential, elasticity modulus and micrographs. This study provides a biological derived demulsifier with low cost and high efficiency. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]