Patent ID: 8211284

Claim:
A separating system for separating a fluid mixture including water and oil, the water having a higher density than the oil, the separating system comprising: a conditioning vessel having a fluid inlet and a fluid outlet for passing the fluid mixture through the conditioning vessel; a smart surface within the conditioning fluid vessel, the smart surface having a plurality of surface-confined molecules sufficiently spaced to undergo conformational transitions in response to an applied voltage to preferentially expose hydrophilic or hydrophobic portions of the surface-confined molecules; a voltage source for selectively applying a voltage to the smart surface to selectively attract or repel the water in proximity to the smart surface, thereby displacing the oil in proximity to the smart surface away from or toward the smart surface, respectively; and a separator including a separator vessel downstream from the conditioning fluid vessel for receiving and separating the conditioned fluid mixture and outputting the separated oil from an oil outlet and the separated water from a water outlet.