In this study, hierarchical MgAl-LDH (layered double hydroxide) nanoparticles with a flower-like morphology were prepared under a hydrothermal condition by employing worm-like micelles formed by cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and salicylic acid (SA) as templates. The morphology and structure of the materials were characterized by Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), SEM, and XRD analyses. The performance for the adsorption of sulfonated lignite (SL) was also investigated in detail. FTIR was used to detect the presence of active functional groups and determine whether they play important roles in adsorption. The results showed that the hierarchical MgAl-LDH nanoparticles with a specific surface area of 126.31 m²/g possessed a flower-like morphology and meso–macroporous structures. The adsorption capacity was high—its value was 1014.20 mg/g at a temperature of 298 K and an initial pH = 7, which was higher than traditional MgAl-LDH (86 mg/g). The adsorption process of sulfonated lignite followed the pseudo-second-order kinetics model and conformed to Freundlich isotherm model with a spontaneous exothermic nature. In addition, the hierarchical MgAl-LDH could be regenerated and used, and the adsorption was high after three adsorption cycles. The main adsorption mechanisms were electrostatic attraction and ion exchange between the hierarchical MgAl-LDH and sulfonated lignite.

In this work, a series of novel paraffin inhibitor, polyaminoamide (PAA), was designed and prepared by aminolysis and poly-condensation using soybean oil and canola oil as the raw material. The property of the PAAs as paraffin inhibitor was investigated, the results show several PAA samples are potent in paraffin inhibition, and PPC-2 is the most effective one. Besides, the paraffin crystal morphology analysis was carried out to provide the mechanism of paraffin inhibition.

A novel Mg-Al metal oxide has been successfully synthesized by the calcination of hierarchical porous Mg-Al hydrotalcite clay obtained by using filter paper as a template under hydrothermal conditions. Various characterizations of the obtained nanoscale oxide particles verified the uniform dispersion of Mg-Al metal oxides on the filter paper fiber, which had a size of 2–20 nm and a highest specific surface area (SSA) of 178.84 m²/g. Structural characterization revealed that the as-prepared Mg-Al metal oxides preserved the tubular morphology of the filter paper fibers. Further experiments showed that the as-synthesized Mg-Al metal oxides, present at concentrations of 0.3 g/L, could efficiently remove sulfonated lignite from oilfield wastewater (initial concentration of 200 mg/L) in a neutral environment (pH = 7) at a temperature of 298 K. An investigation of the reaction kinetics found that the adsorption process of sulfonated lignite (SL) on biomorphic Mg-Al metal oxides fits a Langmuir adsorption model and pseudo-second-order rate equation. Thermodynamic calculations propose that the adsorption of sulfonated lignite was spontaneous, endothermic, and a thermodynamically feasible process.

In this study no-glycerol biodiesel production was prepared using nano γ-Al ₂ O ₃ particles as support in the tri-component coupling transesterification of canola oil, dimethyl carbonate and methanol.