Determination and Analysis of Fat, Oil and Grease (FOG) Content Extracted from the Drain Water Using Fourier-Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectrophotometric Method

Tan, Jun Keat (2024) Determination and Analysis of Fat, Oil and Grease (FOG) Content Extracted from the Drain Water Using Fourier-Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectrophotometric Method. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology.

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Abstract

Fat, oil and grease (FOG) is a type of organic compound, which primarily comprised of triglyceride esters, free fatty acids and soap salts, that was released into the drainage systems and causes flash floods that leads to damage in infrastructure. As many solvents used from the previous analysis methods for FOG were being phased out due to environmental concerns, a new Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectrophotometricbased method with alternative solvent used is developed. Chloroform is used due to its simpler structure as well as having very low ozone depleting potential when compared to previous solvents used. In this FTIR spectrophotometry-based analysis method, a calibration curve was plotted using different concentrations of palm oil emulsion standards prepared from in the laboratory, and the effects of foreign ions, saponification, pH, environmental temperature, as well as emulsion aging is being studied. In addition, several samples of water from the drains located nearby several different restaurants were collected and analysed with the newly developed method. All the parameter effects, calibration curve, and drain water samples were analysed via the measurement of peak areas on the C-H stretching peaks located between 3000 cm-1 and 2800 cm-1, as well as the C=O ester stretching peak located at around 1730 cm-1. The method was successfully developed, with chloroform being shown as a suitable alternative for solvents previously being phased out. Besides that, some of the parameters studied, such as temperature, emulsion aging, and pH, had shown to affect the peak readings of the emulsion standard, hence the peak intensity within the FTIR spectrums of the samples can be affected by external factors from the environment.