Method for quantifying the fate of petroleum in the environment

Petroleum is a complex mixture of a wide range of hydrocarbon and non-hydro carbon compounds of various physical and chemical properties. In recent yea rs, the research on the fate of petroleum in the environment has required a nalytical methods that can provide more detailed information on the compone nts of petroleum than traditional standard methods. The analytical method p resented for aqueous, sediment, and soil samples provides several levels of information on petroleum in the environment. The Total Extractable Materia ls (TEM) analysis provides a gross measure of petroleum in the environment using methylene chloride extraction and gravimetric analysis. Gross composi tion analysis separates the methylene chloride extract into a saturate hydr ocarbon, an aromatic hydrocarbon, and a polar fraction each measured gravim etrically. In contrast, the target compound analysis provides a detailed me asure by CC-MS of 62 specific compounds. Normalization to the conservative compound, 17 alpha,21 beta-(H)Hopane, is incorporated into the method to re duce the effects of sample and site heterogeneity. Quality control and qual ity assurance procedures are integral parts of these analyses to assure the validity of the resulting data. A sample data set from a biological augmen tation product evaluation was used only to illustrate the interpretation of the petroleum chemistry. In this example, conclusions were dependent on th e criteria for evaluating the fate of petroleum. As the product evaluation progressed through the petroleum chemistry method, the conclusion on the th eir effectiveness changed. Therefore, proper interpretation of the petroleu m chemistry, which is dependent on the method, is necessary to correctly ev aluate the fate of petroleum in the environment. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.