Crude oil has some salt water emulsionThe amount of emulsion depends on the distribution of phases within the reservoir, the geographical location of oil fields, the eadge of the reservoir, extraction method, and particularly the use of water injection for extraction. Water as an integral part of all petroleum products causese problems such as freezing water droplets in jet fuel wich can lead to sudden crush. Also, the presence of water droplets causes oxidation and reduction of oil used in industries. So, to over come theise problems, separating water from oil, is an important field of study wich as atracted the attention of many researches. There are several methods for separating water from oil which are not based on the use of fibrous filters. Due to high cost, low efficiency and large volume equipment, these methods are not effective. Fibers, particularly nanofibers due to their special properties have many potential advantages in industrial gases and liquid filtration. Nanofibrous filters with merits such as the low weight, high permeability and small pore size are suitable for liquid – liquid separation. So far nanofibrous polyvinyl alcohol layers have been used for filtration of water from jet fuel. The aim of this study was to evaluate the electrospinnability of tragacanth and modified tragacath (water soluble tragacanth) as well as their potential for absrbing water from petroleum products, namely, JP4 and Diesel. A nanofibrous layer of polyacrylonitrile was employed as support layer for pure tragacanth as well as modified tragacanth-polyvinyl alcohol nanofibrous layers. The remaining water in JP4 and diesel after filtration was measured by the Karl Fischer device according to ASTM D 630. The results showed that pure tragacanth nanofibers with average diameter of about 130 nm and modified tragacanth polyvinyl alcohol (90-10) nanofibers with average diameter of about 80 were electrospun successfullyTo reduce the solubility of the nanofibrous webs in water, glutaaldehyde was used as cross linking agent. FTIR analysi proved the formation of acetate bonding between glutaraldehyde and tragacanth, polyvinyl alcohol and modified tragacanth inducating the formation of cross links between them. X-ray diffraction analysis showed Tragacanth electrospun nanofibers have a micro structure consisting of small crystallites whereas, modified modified tragacanth – poly vinyl alcohol nanofiber consist of large crystallites. Karl Fischer results showed high efficiency for absorbing water from oil products. The filters can be reused after drying Moreover, pure tragacanth nanofibers showed higher efficiency for JP4 and modified tragacath-PVA nanofibers showed higher efficienc
