Formation water from oilfields is one of the major environmental issues related to the oil industry. This research investigated oil adsorption onto nanoparticles of hydrophobic alumina and alumina nanopartides functionalized with a petroleum vacuum residue (VR) at 2 and 4 wt% to reduce the amount of oil in oil-saltwater emulsions at different pH values (5,7 and 9). The initial concentration of crude oil in water ranged from 100 to 500 mg/L. The change in oil concentration after adsorption was determined using a UV-vis spectrophotometer. The results indicated that all of the systems performed more effectively at a pH of 7 and using Al/4VR material. The oil adsorption was higher for neutral and acid systems compared with basic ones, and it was improved by increasing the amount of VR on the surface of the alumina. Additionally, the amount of NaCl adsorbed onto nanoparticles was estimated for different mixtures. The adsorption equilibrium and kinetics were evaluated using the Dubinin-Astakhov model, the Brunauer-Emmet-Teller model, and pseudo-first- and pseudo-second-order models, with a better fitting to the Brunauer-Emmet-Teller model and pseudo-second-order model. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.