The determination of vegetable and mineral oils in the effluents and sewage sludges of the upper tame basin

Abstract A method for the quantitative determination of vegetable and mineral oils in effluents and sewage sludges is described. The oils are extracted from acidified effluents by liquid-liquid extraction and from acidified dried sewage sludges by Soxhlet extraction using carbon tetrachloride as the solvent. The vegetable oil is transesterified at room temperature and quantitatively estimated by gas-liquid chromatography. After neutralization and separation of the methyl esters of the vegetable oils on a silica gel column, the eluted mineral oils are qualitatively estimated by gas-liquid chromatographic “fingerprinting” analysis and quantitatively estimated by i.r. spectrophotometry.