Abstract: A kind of scum adsorbents was prepared from oily scum and its adsorption performance was studied. The results indicate that carbon content is high in the scum adsorbent with rough surface morphology and irregular porous structure. The pore size distribution is mainly mesopores. The static adsorption show that the removal rate of COD and oil in oilfield sewage is 91.51% and 87.13%, respectively, higher than the reference wood-based activated carbon. The saturated capacity of COD in oilfield wastewater is greater than the wood-based activated carbon, proved by the dynamic adsorption results. The regeneration experiments indicate that the removal of COD and oil in the wastewater is prior to wood-based activated carbon under equal conditions, even after twice regenerations. When the scum adsorbent is used in combination with poly-aluminum chloride, the COD and oil concentration after treatment can be reduced to 37.63 mg/L and 2.183 mg/L, respectively, meeting the “Integrated Wastewater Discharge Standard in LiaoNing province”（DB21/1627—2008).

Key words: scum, scum adsorbent, regenerability, resource utilization