Cellulose-based materials in wastewater treatment of petroleum industry

The most abundant natural biopolymer on earth, cellulose fiber, may offer a highly efficient, low-cost, and chemical-free option for wastewater treatment. Cellulose is widely distributed in plants and several marine animals. It is a carbohydrate polymer consisting of beta-1,4-linked anhydro-D-glucose units with three hydroxyl groups per anhydroglucose unit (AGU). Cellulose-based materials have been used in food, industrial, pharmaceutical, paper, textile production, and in wastewater treatment applications due to their low cost, renewability, biodegradability, and non-toxicity. For water treatment in the oil and gas industry, cellulose-based materials can be used as adsorbents, flocculants, and oil/water separation membranes. In this review, the uses of cellulose-based materials for wastewater treatment in the oil & gas industry are summarized, and recent research progress in the following aspects are highlighted: crude oil spill cleaning, flocculation of solid suspended matter in drilling or oil recovery in the upstream oil industry, adsorption of heavy metal or chemicals, and separation of oil/water by cellulosic membrane in the downstream water treatment. (C) 2019, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.