In this study, for the treatment efficiency of the IGF process for the treatment of produced water (PW) discharged from the oil sands plant, the bench-scale oil sands plant PWT package was designed, manufactured and evaluated to verify the efficiency of the process. The microbubble generation efficiency and microbubble size change according to the circulation pump pressure were observed, and the correlation between influent concentration and temperature, residence time and oil-water separation performance was analyzed.

An important variable in the oil-water separation process is the size and dispersion diagram of the bubbles formed in the induced gas flotation(IGF). In this study, the influence of the behavior and characteristics of the fine bubbles generated in the IGF device on the oil-water separation performance was evaluated by a numerical analysis method. For this reason, it constitutes Grid system suitable for bubble characteristic analysis. By applying Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations, a continuous abnormal flow analysis model of water and air was established. For the numerical flow analysis model, we applied the Eulerian-Eulerian approach that can be used for the reaction model in which bubbles are formed at one point of the Euler method applied when the base is liquid. As a result, it was confirmed that the bubbles in the IGF device were evenly dispersed as the flow velocity of bubbles increased and the particle size decreased. Such a phenomenon was caused by changes in Reynolds number and drag related to the flow characteristics, and could be explained by Stokes' law of viscosity.