Green Revolution: Chemical-Free Physical Oil Removal in Wastewater Treatment
With environmental requirements becoming increasingly stringent today, chemical-free physical oil removal is becoming an important technical direction for industrial wastewater treatment. SINOKLE has developed CDFU cyclonic dissolved air flotation technology, bringing breakthrough progress to this field with its innovative purely physical demulsification process.
Working Principle: An Innovative Breakthrough from Technology Fusion
CDFU cyclonic dissolved air flotation unit ingeniously integrates centrifugal separation, dissolved air flotation, and ultrafine bubble generation technologies into one efficient hybrid treatment unit. Through special structural design it produces ultrafine bubbles only 5-30 μm in diameter; uniformly dispersed and highly adsorptive, these bubbles effectively adhere to oil droplets and suspended solids in the wastewater.
Compared with conventional chemical methods, the core advantage of CDFU technology lies in its purely physical demulsification mechanism. In operation, the oily wastewater to be treated is mixed with DAF water that releases a large number of ultrafine bubbles through the release device, and first enters the swirl separation zone tangentially, where strong centrifugal force quickly separates heavy suspended solids. The mixed liquid then enters the flotation separation zone, where dispersed oil, emulsified oil, and suspended solids are rapidly attached by ultrafine bubbles, demulsified, and aggregated under the swirl action, then rise and are discharged.
Performance Advantages: Efficient and Environmentally Friendly
CDFU technology delivers outstanding treatment performance: single-stage oil removal efficiency above 90%, suspended solids removal above 85%, and effluent oil content stably controlled below 5 mg/L. Even more striking, its retention time is only 1-5 minutes — 3 to 8 times the efficiency of conventional flotation processes.
The environmental benefits of the technology are particularly prominent: as it requires no chemical dosing at all, oily sludge generation is fundamentally eliminated; while avoiding secondary pollution risks, the recovered waste oil also has re-refining value, achieving a win-win of environmental and economic benefits. Meanwhile, the fully enclosed pressurized operation design prevents odor leakage, achieving truly green treatment.
Application Cases: Successful Practice in Multiple Fields
In a black water treatment project at an oil refinery in Xinjiang, a coalescing pressure oil remover + CDFU cyclonic dissolved air flotation combined process was adopted, achieving efficient demulsification and oil removal entirely by physical means with no chemical dosing, no sludge generation, zero secondary pollution, and the recovered oil is re-refined, delivering considerable economic benefits.
Development Prospects: Technology-Driven Industrial Transformation
CDFU features a skid-mounted design with a footprint only 1/3 of conventional equipment, especially suitable for space-constrained scenarios such as offshore platforms. The modular structure simplifies installation and greatly shortens construction periods. An intelligent operation system integrating IoT and AI supports remote monitoring and unattended operation, significantly reducing labor costs.
As global environmental standards continue to rise, CDFU technology and other physical oil-removal processes represented by it are being widely applied in oil refining and petrochemicals, power generation, and municipal wastewater. Their purely physical, zero-chemical characteristics not only meet current environmental requirements but also provide a reliable path for the sustainable development of industrial wastewater treatment.
