Oil-water separation

Japanese: 油水分離 - ゆすいぶんり（英語表記）oil‐water separation

This is a phenomenon in which oil or water in oil separates in water due to the difference in specific gravity between oil and water in a gravitational or centrifugal field. When oil mixed in industrial wastewater or cleaning water turns into oil droplets and is dispersed in water as an emulsion, and the oil is left standing in a tank, it floats and coagulates because it is lighter than water, and separates into two liquid phases, oil and water. This is called floatation separation, and is the opposite of the settling separation of water droplets in oil, but the phenomenon can be considered to be the same. If the size of the oil droplets is 1 mm or more, the emulsion is unstable and can be separated relatively easily, but emulsions with oil droplets of 1 to 1.5 μm in diameter are stable and require a long time for floating and coagulation separation.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

重力場あるいは遠心力場で，油と水の比重差により水中に含まれる油分もしくは油中の水分が分かれる現象をいう。工場排水や洗浄水中に混入している油分が油滴となって水中に乳濁分散している乳濁液をタンク内に静置すると，油は水より軽いので浮上し凝結して油と水の2液相に分かれる。これは浮上分離といわれ，油中の水滴の沈降分離の逆であるが，現象は同一として考えてよい。油滴の大きさが1mm以上なら乳濁液は不安定で比較的容易に分離できるが，油滴径が1～1.5μmの乳濁液は安定で浮上凝結分離に長時間を要する。

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