New materials help better separate oil, water

Researchers have successfully developed new oil-water separation materials with basalt fiber and the technology of recycled waste oil, according to the Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The new material – a kind of basalt fiber fabric - is made of natural basalt stone after smashing it, melting it at a high temperature, and then covering it with a polymer nanocomposite coating.

It has excellent oil-water separating performance, and its efficiency exceeds 99 percent, which can help solve the problem of oil-water separation and recycled waste oil in the catering industry.

The quality of the water separated from the oil through the new material is superior to the national discharge standard, according to Ma Pengcheng, head of the research team from the institute's department of environmental science and technology.

"The recycled waste oil can be used for combustion and also can be processed into plasticizer with a quite stable performance," he said. "The technology can help reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of PVC processing enterprises and open up a new way of environmental protection and recycled waste oil for catering enterprises."