Effect of Disk Skimmer Material and Oil Viscosity on Oil Spill Recovery

The present work aims to study the effect of disk material and disk surface roughness on the oil recovery rate and oil recovery efficiency. Materials used in this study were steel, plastic, and woven fabric; two types of oil were used, namely, SAE50 and used car engine oil. The oil recovery rate was found to increase with increasing disk rotational speed. The rate of oil recovery ranged from 88.19 to 337.14 (mL/min) for SAE50 oil and ranged from 89.03 to 355.4 (mL/ min) for used oil depending on disk rotational speed and the type of disk. The rough steel disk performance is inferior to other disks except at high rotational speeds. Oil recovery efficiency was found to decrease with increasing disk rotational speed. The oil recovery efficiency ranged from 77 to 95.2 for SAE50 oil and ranged from 72 to 95.2 for used oil depending on disk rotational speed and the type of disk. Specific energy consumption ranged from 3.08×10 −4 to 4.7×10 −4 kW·h/kg of recovered SAE50 oil and ranged from 3.04×10 −4 to 2.589×10 −4 kW·h/kg of recovered used oil depending on disk rotational speed.