PURPOSE
The purpose of this
experiment was to compare the oil absorbency of natural items with that of
polypropylene pads, the most common consumer product used for this purpose.
I became interested in this idea when my math teacher told our class about the Exxon Valdez oil spill that occurred in 1989 in Prince William Sound, Alaska. When I did more research on the Valdez, I found that they were able to remove the oil, with talc, a powder made from talcum. I also found that many animals were harmed from the oil so I decided to find out if any natural sources could absorb more oil than consumer products.
The information gained from this experiment could be useful to the consumer’s who need to clean oil from driveways, parking lots etc. It could also be helpful to store owners. It would be very useful to wildlife as well!
HYPOTHESIS
My hypothesis was that
polypropylene absorbent pads would absorb at least 10% more oil than hay would.
My second hypothesis was that polypropylene pads would absorb at least 10% more oil than sheep wool would.
I based my hypothesis on a 2002 science project by Arianne Judy. In her results it states her hypothesis, that natural products absorb equal or more oil than consumer, should be rejected.
EXPERIMENT DESIGN
The constants in this study
were:
• Type of oil (40 weight motor oil)
• Container size and type
• The amount of natural product used
• The amount of oil “spilled” to collect
• The temperature of the oil.
• The temperature of the room.
• Size and weight of mesh bags.
The manipulated variable was the type of product used to absorb oil; in this case it was hay, sheep wool, llama wool, and polypropylene pads.
The responding variable was the mass of oil absorbed.
Using the triple beam balance I measured the amount of oil absorbed by taking the beginning mass of the material and subtracting that from the ending mass (the mass of the material plus oil). This was the mass of the oil absorbed.
MATERIALS
QUANTITY
|
ITEM DESCRIPTION
|
75g
|
Washed
Sheep Wool
|
75g
|
Hay
|
75g
|
Water/oil
Tray
|
1
|
Water/oil
Tray
|
5
|
Polypropylene
Pads (consumer products)
|
1800
ml
|
Tap
Water
|
36
|
Mesh
Bags
|
1
|
Triple
Beam Balance
|
1
quart (.946ml)
|
40
Weight Motor Oil
|
PROCEDURES
1. Create Mesh Pouches
a) Cut
out 36 pieces of mesh fabric that are 12x20 cm.
b) Fold them in half so they are 12x10cm.
c) Sew along the two sides that were 20 cm. but are now folded on top of each other. This will form 36 open pockets that are 12x10 cm.
d) Place 4.5g. of an absorbent inside the pouch using a triple beam balance to make sure the mass is 4.5g.
• Fill 12 mesh bags with polypropylene, 12 with hay, and 12 with fleece.
e) Sew the tops shut.
2. Begin Experiment
#1-Without Water.
a)
Place 500-ml. motor oil in the tray DO NOT PUT WATER IN.
b) Place
each absorbent in pouch into the tray of oil.
c)
Leave in oil for 20 minutes. Flip the pouches over every ten minutes.
d) Remove from tray.
e) Let the pouches drip for 24 hours.
f) Place a paper plate on the scale and record it’s weight.
g) Next, place one pouch on the plate and weigh it. Record the mass. Next, subtract the mass of the plate from the mass of the pouch and the plate, so you only have the weight of the pouch.
h) Subtract 4.5g from the weight of the pouch minus the plate. The remaining weight is the mass of oil absorbed. Record the mass of oil that was absorbed in experiment number one.
i) Repeat steps f-h with each oil soaked pouch.
3. Begin Experiment
#2-Water Only
a)
Repeat Experiment number two with WATER ONLY (No oil) Use new absorbent
pouches.
4. Begin Experiment #3(with
oil and water).
a)
Repeat experiment number one but float 500ml. oil in 1000ml. H2O.
The original purpose of
this experiment was to compare the oil absorbency of natural items with that of
polypropylene pads, the most common consumer product used for this purpose.
The results:
• For oil only sheep wool absorbed the most oil (85g).
• For water only on average hay absorbed the most water (85g). Polypropylene absorbed the least amount (0.375g).
• For water and oil polypropylene absorbed the most (100.175g), followed by sheep wool (90.9g) and hay (14.3g).
My
hypothesis was that polypropylene absorbent pads would absorb at least 10% more
oil than hay would.
The
results indicate that this hypothesis should be accepted because the
polypropylene pads absorbed about seven times as much as hay did, far more than
the 10% required.
My second hypothesis was that polypropylene pads would absorb at least 10% more
oil than sheep fleece would.
The
results are inconclusive for this hypothesis. When absorbing oil only (no
water), sheep wool absorbed more than polypropylene. When absorbing oil
floating on water, the polypropylene did absorb 10% more than the wool did. I
rejected this hypothesis but realized that more experimentation should be done.
After
thinking about the results of this experiment, I wonder if the kind/weight of
the oil would affect the amount that is absorbed. My oil was refined, but how
would crude oil affect the results?
If I
were to conduct this project again I would test more types of materials, and do
many more trials with each material. I did have a couple of strange outliers
and doing more trials would help dilute the effect of unusual weights in the
final average.
Researched
by ------ Tensie P
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