Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

[b][color=black]size=18]I need help on getting my project done it is due on november first 2005 i need to take out oil from water without taking alot of water in the process it is hard to do and i need help [/b] [/color][/size]

Hey, what technology do you have available to you? because I read that oil can be removed from water by gravitational separation due to the denisity differences. This is used as primary treatment in wastewater plants but I'm not sure if you would be able to replicate this.

As well as gravity separation, you may wish to research the phase change properties of your materials.

For example freezing properties of water and the oil you need to remove may be different... if one substance freezes out before the other... then you may be able to use mechanical filtration.

Another example, if one material has an extremely higher vapor pressure than the other... then one may use a still to separtate them.

You may research these properties using book references or web search references of the materials in question, looking for physical property data on freezing/melting (same thing) point, boiling point (related to vapor pressure equal to atmospheric pressure at the tempureture), or vapor pressure at other temperatures.

Good luck.

I came up with quite a few websites for this topic by typing separate oil water into a Google search bar. Many are related to cleaning up oil spill in bodies of water. However, this one has information to do it at home:

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/g ... n99726.htm (good info!)