Compound Cleaning Agent for Oily Sludge from Experiments and Molecular Simulations

[Image: see text] This paper reported a new oily sludge compound cleaning agent formula, which used a combination of molecular simulation and experimental methods to study its interfacial formation energy (IFE), and exciting results were obtained. From a total of 24 surfactants in five categories, sodium silicate (Na(2)SiO(3)), sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate, and fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene polyoxypropylene ether (JFC-SF) were screened out because of their excellent washing oil effect. Under a reasonable orthogonal system, when the mass ratio of the three surfactants was 3:1:1, the oil desorption effect was the best, the oil residual rate could reach 2.13%, and the oil removal efficiency could reach 93.53%. Verified by the molecular dynamics simulation module, the absolute value of the interface binding energy was the largest at this compound ratio, which was 465.71 kcal/mol. More importantly, we have discussed in depth the mechanism of adsorption and permeation of oily sludge by cleaning agents. Through single-factor influence experiments, the following optimized working condition parameters of the cleaning agent were determined: cleaning conditions with an agent content of 4%, a temperature of 70 °C, a stirring speed of 400 rpm, a cleaning time of 30 min, and a liquid–solid ratio (L/S) of 4:1. The research results laid the foundation for resource utilization, harmlessness, and reduction of oily sludge in the Liaohe oilfield.