Analysis of oil content in ultrafiltered water based on oil emulsion using fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR)

Abstract

The quantitative analysis is a simple and fast method that has been developed to analyse the oil content in the permeate of ultrafiltration process. Measurements of concentration were done on standard palm oil solution within 0.05-7.00 wt. %, followed by verification of permeate content to validate the calibration model. The measurement was based on simple Beer's Laws method to determine the concentration of oil in the permeated water. The standard oil solution was analysed using Attenuated Total Reflectance- Fourier Transform Infrared (ATR-FTIR) to obtain the spectrum of triglycerides group, which are the principal component that exists in fats and oils. The absorption wavelength was found to be within 1789.62 cm-1 and 1697.53 cm-1. The selected region will be used to quantify the standard oil concentration. Regression coefficient (R2) for the calibration model and validation was 0.99267 and 0.9913, respectively indicating excellent oil concentration determination. These results showed that all the measurements were in the range of calibration curve which shows a facile method is suitable for the oil determination in the permeate water samples. The ATR-FTIR method was compared with turbidity method, thus ATR-FTIR method was preferred and reliable to be used in determining of oil concentration. © 2014 Penerbit UTM Press. All rights reserved.