Integrated Methodology for Forensic Oil Spill Identification

Abstract

A new integrated methodology for forensic oil spill identification is presented. It consists of GC-MS analysis, chromatographic data processing, variable-outlier detection, multivariate data analysis, estimation of uncertainties, and statistical evaluation. The methodology was tested on four groups of diagnostic ratios composed of petroleum biomarkers and ratios within homologous PAH categories. Principal component analysis (PCA) was employed and enabled the simultaneous analysis of many diagnostic ratios. Weathering was taken into account by considering the sampling uncertainties estimated from replicate spill samples. Statistical evaluation ensured an objective matching of oil spill samples with suspected source oils as well as classification into positive match, probable match, and nonmatch. The data analysis is further refined if two or more source oils are classified as probable match by using weighted least squares fitting of the principal components, local PCA models, and additional information relevant to the spill case. The methodology correctly identified the source of two spill samples (i.e., crude oils from Oseberg East and Oseberg Field Centre) and distinguished them from closely related source oils.

Ant Queen Egg-Marking Signals: Matching Deceptive Laboratory Simplicity with Natural Complexity

“…We included only those peaks that varied more between QLE and WLE than within either of these groups, to decrease noise in the analysis, i.e. for which the standard deviation over all QLE and WLE samples combined was at least as large as the pooled standard deviation within these groups [49]. This reduced the number of variables to the nineteen peaks (Figure 1C – marked with an asterisk), out of twenty-nine that were available.…”

Macondo‐1 well oil‐derived polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in mesozooplankton from the northern Gulf of Mexico

“…These PAHs may be used as chemical fingerprints of specific types of oil released into natural environments [Blumer, 1976]. For example, PAH distributions, or relative abundances of low and high molecular weight PAHs, have been used to fingerprint oil and determine the provenance of various oil spills in the environment [Bennett et al, 2000;Stout et al, 2001;Christensen et al, 2004]. Despite extensive efforts at completely delineating the extent of the DWH oil spill, there have been no studies published to date addressing whether or not the spill introduced oil-derived toxic compounds into the pelagic food web of the nGOM.…”

Superoleophilic and Superhydrophobic Inverse Opals for Oil Sensors

“…Other detection methods developed include special luminescent detectors, [5] which are only suitable for specific oils with luminescent groups, or expensive and complicated instruments, e.g., gas chromatography or infrared spectroscopy. [6,7] Therefore, there is a need for more facile and economical materials or methods for quick oil detection. In this work, an oil-sensing material is prepared from a superoleophilic phenolic resin (PR) photonic crystal (PC), which directly responds to the adsorption of various oils while displaying excellent selectivity.…”