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Updated: Jan 25, 2026

Enhanced Oil Recovery using a Combination of Biosurfactants
Published on: June 3, 2022
Facile Oil Removal from Water-in-Oil Stable Emulsions Using PU Foams
Suset Barroso-Solares1,2, Javier Pinto3,4, Despina Fragouli5
1Smart Materials, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, via Morego 30, 16163 Genova, Italy. sbarroso@fmc.uva.es.
Abstract:
Superhydrophobic and oleophilic polyurethane foams were obtained by spray-coating their surfaces with solutions of thermoplastic polyurethane and hydrophobic silicon oxide nanoparticles. The developed functionalized foams were exploited as reusable oil absorbents from stable water-in-oil emulsions. These foams were able to remove oil efficiently from a wide range of emulsions with oil contents from 10 to 80 v.%, stabilized using Span80. The modified foams could reach oil absorption capacities up to 29 g/g, becoming a suitable candidate for water-in-oil stable emulsions separation.
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