The Department of Chemical Engineering at the College of Engineering, Al-Qadisiyah University, discussed a Master’s thesis entitled “An Experimental Study on the Synthesis of Effective De-emulsifiers for Breaking Emulsions in Oily Wastewater,” submitted by researcher Karrar Nasser Adhab and supervised by Professor Dr. Saleh Abdul-Jabbar Saleh and Professor Dr. Hassan Issa Dawood.

The thesis aimed to prepare three environmentally friendly de-emulsifiers for treating oil-in-water emulsions, using carboxylic acids to obtain polyamides through a condensation polymerization reaction. It also studied the properties of the prepared de-emulsifiers and evaluated their efficiency in separating oil from water.

The results showed that the optimal operating conditions were pH = 8.56, concentration 3000 ppm, temperature 70 °C, and a time of 17.5 minutes.  The quadratic model also showed good agreement between the experimental and expected results, with a coefficient of determination (R²) of 98.69%.

The results also demonstrated varying efficiencies of the prepared demulsifiers in reducing surface and interfacial tension and separating oil from water. The separation efficiency was 93.23% for GED, 89.54% for SED, and 88.90% for AED, confirming the potential of these prepared demulsifiers as effective and environmentally friendly options for treating oil-in-water emulsions.