Comparisons of Azeotropic Distillation, Infrared Spectrophotometry and Ultraviolet Spectrophotometry for Oil Content Measurement

Abstract

At present, the huge output of oily sludge is seriously harmful to the environment, so it must be treated as resources and detoxification. Oil content is the key technical indicator in its treatment process. In this paper, azeotropic distillation, infrared spectrophotometry and ultraviolet spectrophotometry were used to determine the oil content of two kinds of oily sludge. The results show that the oil content of oil sludge OS-1 and OS-2 measured by azeotropic distillation method is 56.96(±2.65)% and 7.62(±0.63)%, respectively. Azeotropic distillation method is suitable for the three-phase determination of oil, water and residue in oily sludge, and provides basic parameters for the selection of oily sludge treatment method and oil content detection method. The oil content of OS-1 and OS-2 measured by ultraviolet spectrophotometry is only 14.78(±1.15)% and 3.16(±0.40)%, respectively. Ultraviolet spectrophotometry is suitable for the detection of oily sludge with unsaturated petroleum hydrocarbons as the main component. Infrared spectrophotometry can fully detect petroleum components, so infrared spectrophotometry is relatively reliable and can be widely used in experiments and production. This study provides theoretical basis and data support for the selection of oil content detection methods for different oily sludge.