Citation:
Simon J. T. Pollard, Steve E. Hrudey, Marv Rawluk and Bryan J. Fuhr.
Characterisation of weathered hydrocarbon wastes at contaminated sites by GC-
simulated distillation and nitrous oxide chemical ionisation GC/MS, with
implications for bioremediation. Journal of Environmental Monitoring, 2004, 3
August, Vol.6(8), pp.713-718
Abstract:
An extended analytical characterisation of weathered hydrocarbons isolated from
historically contaminated sites in Alberta is presented. The characterisation of
soil extracts, chromatographically separated into component classes, by GC-
simulated distillation and nitrous oxide (N2O) chemical ionisation (CI) GC-MS
provides new insights into the composition of the residual oil at these sites,
the principal partition medium for risk critical components. The combined polar
and asphaltene content of representative soil extracts ranged from 40% w/w to
70% w/w of the oils encountered. An abundance of C14–C22 2–4 ring alicyclics,
alkylbenzenes and benzocycloparaffins is prevalent within the saturate fractions
of site soils. Implications for the partitioning of risk critical compounds at
sites with weathered hydrocarbons and the practical application of
bioremediation technologies are discus
