The molten salt can clean the oil from sand

A more respectful of the environment for the oil and tar sand method has been developed by a group of researchers from Penn State University. Using ionic liquids to separate the heavy viscous oil from sand, a technical team could help reduce toxic waste from oil sands surface and assist in the clean up after oil spills.

Tar sands, also known as tar sands or oil sands constitute about two-thirds of global oil reserves estimated. Canada is the world's largest producer of unconventional oil from tar sands, and the United States imports more than 1 million barrels of oil a day from Canada, almost double that of Saudi Arabia. It is estimated that 32 billion barrels of oil could be in the tar sands of Utah.

The extraction and separation of these deposits is often expensive and harmful to the environment because they contain complex mixtures of sand, clay, water and bitumen, a "heavy" or highly viscous oil. The processing of this fuel mixture requires significant amounts of water and energy and generates contaminated waste water that is stored in outdoor ponds. Toxic to aquatic life, this wastewater can seep into groundwater, polluting rivers and lakes. In addition, local freshwater supplies can be depleted as this process requires large amounts of water.

Paul Painter However, the new method developed by the research team of Penn State uses very little energy and water, and all solvents are recycled and reused.

Paul Painter, professor of polymer science at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and his team spent the last 18 months developing this new method using ionic liquids (salt in a liquid state) to facilitate separation. No wastewater is generated during the separation process and is carried out at room temperature.

Asphalt, solvents and sand / clay are separated into three distinct parts. They can be removed separately and the solvent can be reused.

Canada tar removal of oil separation sandy ionic liquids
"Essentially, all the asphalt is recovered in a very clean way, without detectable mineral waste, preferably interacts with the ionic liquid, and prevents contamination of ionic liquids," Painter explained on the website of the department.

This method can also be used to extract the oil from beach sand after oil spills like the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, and the Exxon Valdez disaster. Using sand polluted by the BP oil spill in an experiment, the team was able to separate the oil from the sand in seconds. After using a small amount of water to clean the rest of ionic liquids, sand was so clean it could be returned to the beach, rather than to landfills.

cations 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium
The researchers working with ionic liquids based on cations 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium a positively charged material with high chemical and thermal stability, low flammability and almost negligible vapor pressure, which makes recovering the liquid ion relatively easy.

bank with the experiment of ionic liquids
The team has built a bench a model system (above) and is currently managing patent their discovery.