Thermal soil desorption for total petroleum hydrocarbon testing on gas chromatographs

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:276362

Mott, J ^[1]

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1. SRI Instruments, Torrance, CA (United States)

Testing for total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) is one of the most common analytical tests today. A recent development in chromatography incorporates Thermal Soil Desorption technology to enable analyses of unprepared soil samples for volatiles such as BTEX components and semi-volatiles such as diesel, PCBs, PAHs and pesticides in the same chromatogram, while in the field. A gas chromatograph is the preferred method for determining TPH because the column in a GC separates the individual hydrocarbons compounds such as benzene and toluene from each other and measures each individually. A GC analysis will determine not only the total amount of hydrocarbon, but also whether it is gasoline, diesel or another compound. TPH analysis with a GC is typically conducted with a Flame Ionization Detector (FID). Extensive field and laboratory testing has shown that incorporation of a Thermal Soil Desorber offers many benefits over traditional analytical testing methods such as Headspace, Solvent Extraction, and Purge and Trap. This paper presents the process of implementing Thermal Soil Desorption in gas chromatography, including procedures for, and advantages of faster testing and analysis times, concurrent volatile and semi-volatile analysis, minimized sample manipulation, single gas (H{sub 2}) operation, and detection to the part-per billion levels.

• OSTI ID: 276362
• Report Number(s): CONF-950209--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
ALKYLATED AROMATICS
BENZENE
GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY
MONITORING
OIL SPILLS
POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENYLS
POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS
TOLUENE
XYLENES