A Tiered Analytical Protocol for the Characterization of Heavy Oil Residues at Petroleum-Contaminated Hazardous Waste Sites

Abstract

The analysis of hydrocarbon-contaminated soils from abandoned refinery sites in Alberta, Canada is used to illustrate a tiered analytical approach to the characterization of complex hydrocarbon wastes. Soil extracts isolated from heavy oil- and creosote-contaminated sites were characterized by thin layer chromatography with flame ionization detection (TLC-FID), ultraviolet fluorescence, simulated distillation (GC-SIMDIS) and chemical ionization GC-MS analysis. The combined screening and detailed analytical methods provided information essential to remedial technology selection including the extent of contamination, the class composition of soil extracts, the distillation profile of component classes and the distribution of individual class components within various waste fractions. Residual contamination was characteristic of heavy, degraded oils, consistent with documented site operations and length of hydrocarbon exposure at the soil surface.

Determination of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon (TPH) and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) in Soils: A Review of Spectroscopic and Nonspectroscopic Techniques

“…Prior to the remediation of the impacted media, a full assessment of the impact of the PHCs on the environment and/or humans is essential to identifying both the chemistry and the areal extent to which the PHCs exceed local threshold limit values (TLV), and providing decision support on the appropriate remedial strategy to adopt for effective clean-up of the environmental media. The hierarchical approach to risk assessment (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20) reflects the different types of data handling required at each stage in the data gathering process. Whereas tier 1 risk assessment involves, but not limited to, the quantitation of the total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) and n-alkanes to establish their riskbased screening levels (RBSLs), tier 2 (i.e.…”

Identifying source correlation parameters for hydrocarbon wastes using compound-specific isotope analysis

“…At sites featuring contamination of the soil environment by heavy oils or residual petroleum wastes, the vast complexity of the waste-soil-groundwater matrix and the hydrophobicity, inaccessibility and recalcitrance of individual waste components are such that resolution of these issues is fraught with uncertainties (Potter & Simmons, 1998;Pollard et al, 2004). Particular challenges that such sites present may be categorised into two broad themes; (i) analytical challenges associated with the chemical characterisation of these wastes (Pollard et al, 1994;Whittaker et al, 1996), and (ii) challenges associated with the assessment of biotransformation of heavy oil contaminants and their potential sources, particularly following prolonged weathering (Whittaker, 1996).…”

“…Our own work, on the characterisation of heavy oils, has focussed on improved analytical strategies and methods (Pollard et al, 1994;Whittaker et al, 1996;1999;Pollard et al, 2004) for these problematic environmental matrices. Screening whole reference oils by stable carbon isotope fingerprinting without GC separation (Whittaker et al, 1996) demonstrated the utility of the technique for source term characterisation and highlighted the need for compound-specific studies.…”

Toxicity of Flare and Crude Hydrocarbon Mixtures

“…It has been shown that the presence of high concentrations of asphaltenes and polars (resins) can cause reduced degradation of otherwise bioavailable compounds in crude oil mixtures [26,27,28,29]. Asphaltene and resin compounds are typical of heavy-end and weathered hydrocarbon mixtures [30,31,32] and can be produced by the biotransformation of hydrocarbons [11,20,26,33,34,35,36]. The flare whole mixture is much higher in asphaltene and polars than the crude whole mixture (see Fig.…”