THE COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE EXTRACTION STRENGTH OF SOLVENTS ON TAR SAND FROM OKITIPUPA, ONDO STATE: THE EXTRACTION STRENGTH OF SOLVENTS ON TAR SAND FROM OKITIPUPA, ONDO STATE

Abstract

Tar sand, an aggregate of sand, clay, water and bitumen, was sampled from the Okitipupa area of 8 Ondo State, Nigeria, extracted and optimized using n-hexane and toluene in a soxhlet extractor. 9 This was meant to determine, which among the two solvents (n-hexane and toluene) is best for 10 the extraction of bitumen from the tar sand, and also to determine the operating conditions 11 (temperature and time) of the extraction and, to ultimately evaluate the properties of the 12 extracted oil. The experiment was carried out by heating the solvent at and above their boiling 13 temperatures to get the temperature-time conditions for optimal yield of oil from the tar sand. The analysis gave an optimal yield of 9.07 % at 75o 14 C in 4 h when n-hexane was used and an optimal yield of 21.27 % at 120o 15 C in 4 h when toluene was used. A drastic change in colour was 16 also noticed in the sand residue to almost sandy soil nature when toluene was used as solvent 17 compared to when n-hexane was used, which shows a slight change from its blackish nature. The 18 change in colour of the black tar sand is an indication of high extraction efficiency. Hence, 19 owing to the high demand for conventional oil supply in the country and the urgent need for an 20 alternative source of oil, the bitumen extract can serve as an alternative source of unconventional 21 oil supply in Nigeria and feedstock in refineries.