COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF RECOVERED CRUDE OIL AND FRESH CRUDE OIL

Oils spills are a major world-wide concern because of the associated environmental problems. Ground waste rubber tyres have been demonstrated as a potentially effective material for oil clean-up. Physical and chemical processes were used to recover crude oil from oil-saturated rubber particles. The properties of oil recovered from ground waste rubber used for oil clean-up were compared with those of fresh crude oil to determine if any changes have occurred. The physical properties (API gravity, pour point and boiling distillation range) were investigated using ASTM standard test methods. The results show that for fresh and recovered crude oil, the API gravities were between 30o API and 32o API, and their pour points were between -1oF and 2 oF. The boiling distillation ranges for the fresh and the recovered crude oil were 234oF - 698 oF and 240 oF - 720 oF respectively. There was no significant difference between the properties of the fresh and recovered crude oil. This implies that crude oil recovered from the oil-saturated rubber particles should not be discarded as a waste but should either be reused or refined into useful petroleum products.