Organic geochemistry of sewage sludge. I. Lipid fractionation by thin layer chromatography

This article reports detailed procedures: 1) to decrease organic contaminat ion of samples in the laboratory; 2) to extract sewage sludge with methylen e chloride; and 3) to fractionate extracts by silica-gel thin layer chromat ography (TLC) into fractions enriched in alkanes,aromatic hydrocarbons, ket ones, alcohols and fatty acids, eluting either hexane or methylene chloride .