Inventors:
Dolly Shin - Fort Lee NJ, US
Laura Bendernagel - New York NY, US
Justin Chow - Irvine CA, US
Stephen Yang - New York NY, US
International Classification:
E02B 15/04
US Classification:
210 91, 21017011, 21017005
Abstract:
Systems for automated capture and recovery of oil from oil-contaminated water and solids are disclosed. In some embodiments, the systems include the following: a plurality of automated robotic oil recovery units; a plurality of deployable oil collection membranes positioned within each of the units, each of the membranes including an upper half including a material impermeable to both water and crude oil and a lower half including a semi-permeable hydrophilic membrane that is permeable to water but impermeable to crude oil; and a high pressure carbon dioxide oil solids separation unit for separating oil from oil-contaminated solids thereby producing substantially oil-free solids and an oil and carbon dioxide mixture; a solids separation unit for the separating substantially oil-free solids from the oil and carbon dioxide mixture via gravity separation; and an oil separation unit for separating oil from the oil and carbon dioxide mixture using a pressure swing.