Patent ID: 7462274

Claim:
A method of separating a fluid mixture of water and oil, the water having a higher density than the oil, the method comprising: providing a separator vessel for containing the fluid mixture, the vessel including a fluid inlet, an oil outlet, and a water outlet; a smart surface upstream of the oil outlet and the water outlet, 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; providing a voltage source for selectively applying a voltage to the smart surface; selectively applying a voltage to the smart surface to alternately attract and repel the water in proximity to the smart surface, thereby displacing the oil in proximity to the smart surface away form or toward the smart surface, respectively; passing the fluid mixture through the fluid inlet and into the separator vessel to at least partially separate the oil and water; and passing separated oil through the oil outlet, and passing separated water through the water outlet.