Investigation of environmental fate of oil sector products and wastes by chemical characterization

Living standarts are changing day after day in the face of global progressive technology and diversified needs. In this respect, the need for oil sector products is also increasing used for nutritional purposes in the food industry or for lubrication purposes in the machine together with increasing population and industrialization as in almost every field. Depending on the conditions, oils lose its relevance to the intended use and transformed into waste form due to deterioration in the physical and chemical structure, and thus, threaten the environment and human health in case of irrational and uncontrolled disposal due to the variety of pollutants being possessed of. In this study, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), metal and halogen content was investigated in the various oil sector products and wastes. Σ15 PCBs in the samples varied from below detection to 31,6 (4,71±6,17) mg/kg and lined up among the sample types as Number 10 lube (5,90±7,83)> oily wastes (4,35±4,51)> waste engine oil (0,359±0,375)> waste animal oil (0,189)> waste vegetable oil (0,179±0,007). While total halogen content as Cl detected in 83% of samples ranging from <200-2300 (713±503) µg/g, the level of Σ21 metals was 1,29-104 (26,9±29,3) µg/g depending on waste oil and oily waste sample. The extent of problem that cause concern from an economic and environmental point of view together with the uncertainties observed in the recovery and disposal approach or applications performed in the uncontrolled and unsupervised manner is scrutinized with real industrial examples.