Determination of Oil in Water by Organic Carbon Analysis.

摘要

A method was investigated for determination of oil in water by establishing the organic carbon content attributable to the oil and by converting this value to the oil content. Samples were homogenized with the aid of an emulsifier, and a correction was made for the carbon contributed by the emulsifier. Aliquots of 35 micros l or less were injected into the organic carbon analyzer because larger samples were incompletely combusted and gave reduced recoveries. With corrections for carbon content of the water or the seawater used to prepare the samples, samples containing 15 mg/l of white mineral oil or Navy distillate fuel gave recoveries of about 85% with standard deviations of about 10%. Samples of about 50 mg/l gave recoveries of about 65%. If the factor of 1.39, instead of the theoretical factor of 1.18, had been used to convert from carbon to oil content, the calculated recoveries would have been 100% for 15 mg/l oil samples and 76% for 50 mg/l oil samples. The method will give only an upper limit for the oil concentration unless a correction is made for dissolved organic materials. (Author)