Preliminary results from the laboratory study of a flow-through fluorometer for measuring oil-in-water levels

An extensive bench-scale test program was conducted to evaluate the performance of the Turner Instruments flow-through model 10AU and model 10 fluorometers for measuring real-time concentrations of oil in water. The results were compared with alternative total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) methods. The 10AU model was equipped with a long wavelength optical kit, the other with the short wavelength optical kit for diesel fuels and light refined oil products. The oils tested were Alberta Sweet Mixed Blend crude oil, Prudhoe Bay crude oil, Bunker C fuel oil and diesel fuel. It was determined that the long wavelength optical kit has minimal capacity to detect and quantify diesel fuels compared to the short wavelength kit, although the latter exhibits a lower performance level. A calibration procedure was also established for oil-in-water to convert the real-time fluorometer data to oil concentrations. Initial comparisons of these tests with standard infrared and gas chromatography procedures were promising. It was determined that fluorometer data can differentiate between various oil-in-water concentrations, but regularly gives concentration values double those of the solvent extraction, infrared or gas chromatography methods. Future studies are being planned to relate the results of this study to the chemical composition of various oils. 16 refs., 5 tabs., 6 figs