Oil in water analysis

The determination of the oil content of refinery effluent water has long been a subject of studies. CONCAWE first published a report on oil in water analysis in 1972.

Although we all know what ‘oil’ is, it cannot be defined scientifically as it may contain millions of compounds ranging from gases to tars. We therefore have to measure some surrogate property, and the value we obtain for oil therefore depends upon the analytical method.