Determination of total petroleum hydrocarbons in soil from different locations using infrared spectrophotometry and gas chromatography

摘要

Total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) are important environmental contaminants which are toxicto human and environmental receptors. Several analytical methods have been used to quantify TPHlevels in contaminated soils, specifically through infrared spectrometry (IR) and gas chromatography(GC). Despite being two of the most used techniques, some issues remain that have beeninadequately studied: a) applicability of both techniques to soils contaminated with two distincttypes of fuel (petrol and diesel), b) influence of the soil natural organic matter content on the resultsachieved by various analytical methods, and c) evaluation of the performance of both techniquesin analyses of soils with different levels of contamination (presumably non-contaminated and potentiallycontaminated). The main objectives of this work were to answer these questions and toprovide more complete information about the potentials and limitations of GC and IR techniques.The results led us to the following conclusions: a) IR analysis of soils contaminated with petrol isnot suitable due to volatilisation losses, b) there is a significant influence of organic matter in IRanalysis, and c) both techniques demonstrated the capacity to accurately quantify TPH in soils,irrespective of their contamination levels.