Exploring the complexity of oil sands process‐affected water by high efficiency supercritical fluid chromatography/orbitrap mass spectrometry

Abstract

This combination of high efficiency chromatography and ultra-high mass resolution detection resulted in a powerful method with capabilities for characterizing or 'fingerprinting' unknown species with little interference. The method has great promise for environmental monitoring and forensics in the oil sands region, as well as for further studies on the composition of dissolved organic compounds in OSPW.

Non‐target profiling of bitumen‐influenced waters for the identification of tracers unique to oil sands processed‐affected water (OSPW) in the Athabasca watershed of Alberta, Canada

“…SFC separation used an 1260 Infinity Hybrid SFC/UHPLC system (Agilent Technologies) in SFC mode, adapting the method of Pereira et al 21 Three Zorbax Rx‐Sil columns (250 × 4.6 mm, 5 μm particle size; Agilent Technologies) were connected in series (total column length 750 mm) and kept at 40°C. Compressed CO 2 gas (grade 4.5) was the feed gas for generation of supercritical CO 2 as the mobile phase (A).…”

Overview of Existing Science to Inform Oil Sands Process Water Release: A Technical Workshop Summary

“…The physical and chemical constituents in OSPW are likely attributed to the physical structure and chemical composition of the oil sand ore being extracted. In recent years, improvements in advanced chromatographic separation and high‐resolution mass spectrometric techniques have greatly expanded the understanding of the chemical complexity of OSPW and other bitumen‐influenced waters (Rowland, Scarlett et al ; Rowland, West et al ; Jones et al ; Headley, Peru, Mohamed et al ; Noestheden et al 2014; Ortiz et al 2014; Pereira and Martin ; Brunswick et al , , ; Hughes, Mahaffey et al ; Kovalchik et al ). This improved ability to characterize OSPW and its constituents has enabled improved targeted toxicological studies on specific fractions of OSPW (Hughes, Huang et al ; Morandi et al ; Bauer ).…”

Trace analysis of total naphthenic acids in aqueous environmental matrices by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry-quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry direct injection

“…In addition to high mass resolution applications, recent progress has been reported on the identification of several new classes of NAs (diamondoid adamantanes, diamantanes, monoaromatic acids) using comprehensive two dimensional GC/GC-ToF/MS by Rowland et al [14,15]. More recently, differential ion mobility spectrometry in combination with quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry [16] and supercritical fluid/Orbitrap mass spectrometry [17] have also been employed by other authors for NA fingerprinting. Both techniques offer the improved separation of multiple peaks but have limitations with respect to routine quantitative analysis.…”

“…Both techniques offer the improved separation of multiple peaks but have limitations with respect to routine quantitative analysis. For example, despite lengthy separation on a 75 min chromatographic gradient, a significant number of polar polyoxy O ≥3 NA species eluted at the same retention time at the end of the gradient and the complexity of different OSPW sources required optimized elution conditions [17]. The observed chromatography of multiple adjacent and overlapping isomeric peaks, while offering interesting and informative insights into the NA homolog profiles, made SFC/Orbitrap application to routine quantitative analysis of total NAs limited.…”