Abstract:
Effective and efficiency studies of a belt type oil skimmer were conducted by using various
synthetic and local belt materials. The belts absorbed the oil from water in the monitoring
wells and was scooped out and collected into a vessel. The three laboratory tests that were conducted on the materials are: Oil sorption capacity, oil retention test and absorbent pick-efficiency test. From the laboratory tests conducted, it was observed that light fuel oil fuzzy belt (LFO) performed best out of the selected synthetic materials as it has higher oil sorption capacity of 0.65 than 0.38 for standard poly belt, but some of the the local materials such ascotton fibre with oil sorption capacity of 1.70, rug (1.55), red deer skin (1.03) and turkey feather (0.88) have exceptional performance over all the tested samples. Consequently, light fuel oil belt being the second belt material used at the spill site of Baruwa Community, has a better performance of the six synthetic belts when used on oil Grabber® Model 8 - Belt Skimmer and much more efficient than standard poly belt in recovering petrol from the wells.
