Sodium lignosulfonate alkylates based-biosurfactants for efficient remediation of oily sludge

Yun Ma; Shengqian Wu; Hui Liu; Chuanqi Ren; Yi Xie; Gang Deng; Shuangquan Yao; Xiaocheng Wang; Chengrong Qin

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.126553

Sodium lignosulfonate alkylates based-biosurfactants for efficient remediation of oily sludge

J Environ Manage. 2025 Jul 11:391:126553. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.126553. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Yun Ma¹, Shengqian Wu², Hui Liu¹, Chuanqi Ren¹, Yi Xie¹, Gang Deng³, Shuangquan Yao¹, Xiaocheng Wang⁴, Chengrong Qin⁵

Affiliations

¹ Guangxi Key Laboratory of Clean Pulp & Papermaking and Pollution Control, School of Light Industrial and Food Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning, 530004, PR China.
² School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning, 530004, PR China.
³ College of Biotechnology and Sericultural Research Institute, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, 212100, PR China.
⁴ Guangxi Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Materials and Safety Technology, School of Petroleum and Chemical Engineering, Beibu Gulf University, Qinzhou, 535011, PR China. Electronic address: wangxcccc@163.com.
⁵ Guangxi Key Laboratory of Clean Pulp & Papermaking and Pollution Control, School of Light Industrial and Food Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning, 530004, PR China. Electronic address: qinchengrong@gxu.edu.cn.

PMID: 40651399
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.126553

Abstract

An alkylated sodium lignosulphonate (ALS) was prepared for highly efficient thermal washing treatment of oily sludge. The ALS was characterized for their chemical structure and surface activity. Furthermore, ALS was used as a thermal cleaning agent to treat oily sludge under different conditions to obtain an optimal thermal washing process. Finally, the oily sludge before and after thermal washing were characterized to explore its structural and compositional changes. Results obtained from the Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Two-dimensional Heteronuclear Single Quantum Coherence(2D-HSQC) confirmed the successful grafting of fatty acid chains(C12) onto the LS molecules. ALS was an ideal surfactant with suitable HLB value and excellent surface tension reduction, foaming and emulsification properties. The optimum thermal washing process for oily sludge was: thermal washing temperature 30 °C, ALS concentration 1.5 g/L.

Keywords: Alkylation; Biosurfactants; Oily sludge; Sodium lignosulfonate; Thermal washing.