Integrated manufacturing of REciclable multi-material COmposites for the TRANSport sector

Oil–water separation is necessary to mitigate the impacts of oily wastewater released from industrial processes, frequently occurred oil spillages during transportation, and oil and gas exploration on ecology and environment. Since oil and water are immiscible, the solid surfaces can be engineered using various nanomaterials to alter their wettability characteristics for effective oil–water separation. In this context, carbon-based membranes (i.e., graphene oxide (GO), carbon nanotubes, and carbon nanofibers) have received significant attention in the past decade or so. Additionally, their surficial modifications with a variety of nanomaterials (i.e., MXenes, MnO2, TiO2, ZnO, MoS2) improved their wettability, permeation flux, and selectively for various oil–water emulsions which renders them efficient to remove oil or water from oil–water emulsions via adsorption, absorption, and simple filtration. Various types of modified carbon-based membranes have been developed and successfully applied for separating oil–water emulsions in the laboratory. In addition to their excellent separation performance, they exhibit tremendous mechanical durability and regenerative properties for their extended reuse. Consequently, owing to these principal characteristics, they can be considered as promising candidates for efficient oil–water separation. However, their utilization is still limited for commercial-scale applications due to their low cost-effectiveness and reusability over longer periods of time. Graphical abstract

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