To do this successfully requires some basic knowledge about oil, its sources, chemical composition, and the technologies required to remove it from water. It is the purpose of a series of articles to supply this information. If he does not attempt to answer this question, he may be lucky and choose the proper removal method, or he will face immediate problems. Neither of these methods achieve consistently less than IO ppm oil. Polymers are not economical for levels below 30 ppm.
Many engineers use activated carbon as a polisher.
Carbon works well, but its pores are blinded by the oil quickly, therefore it is not economical. A newer method has been found, organically modified clay or organoclay. Organoclay is a mixture of bentonite coated with quaternary amines. The amine chains stick into the water and remove the oil by partition. In order to fully understand what we are dealing with, we must first define the terms.