Combination of an Asphalt Stabilizer and a Cellulose–Chitosan Composite Aerogel Used for the Separation of Oil–Water Mixtures Containing Asphalt

[Image: see text] In this paper, cellulose chitosan composite aerogels were prepared through sol–gel and freeze-drying processes. The porous morphology of the aerogels was controlled by adjusting the cellulose concentration. Within a certain range, as the concentration of cellulose increases, the pore diameter of the composite aerogel becomes smaller and the pore structure becomes denser. The cellulose–chitosan composite aerogel can successfully separate the oil–water mixture without asphalt and showed stable filtration performance. The filtration speed is basically unchanged after a slight decrease and can be maintained at about 90% of the initial filtration speed within 30 min. The filtration speed can reach up to 9315 kg·h(–1)·m(–2). When filtering bituminous oil–water mixtures, the filtration rate decreased significantly, with a 50% drop in 30 min. After adding the asphalt stabilizer poly(styrene-alt-octadecyl maleimide) (SNODMI), which is made in our laboratory, the effect of aerogel filtering the asphalt-containing oil–water mixture is obviously improved, and the downward trend of filtration speed is obviously improved. The combination of SNODMI and cellulose–chitosan has great application potential in the field of asphalt-containing oil–water separation.