Application of Combined Technique in Finger Printing Oil Spills/natural Organic Matters

Chao Ya^1,3, William Anderson^2,3, and Rudolf Jaffé^1,3
1Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Florida International University , Miami, FL, USA;
²Department of Earth and Environment, Florida International University , Miami, FL, USA;
³Southeast Environmental Research Center, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA

Petroleum and natural organic matters are both complex mixture of hydrocarbons with diverse compositional structure. Transformation of spilled oil, known as weathering, will cause the change of both physical and chemical properties and complicate the study of oil spills. Similar to petroleum, natural organic carbon such as dissolved organic matter(DOM) also has complex origin, containing heterogeneous organic components resulting from the breakdown of bacterial, algal, and higher plant organic material. DOM is operationally defined as biologically produced carbon containing compounds that are smaller than 0.45μm in diameter. In order to advance the understanding of such complex natural organic mixtures, we used combined techniques: GC-MS, 3D fluorescenc and stable carbon isotope (δ¹³C) to study the sources, fate and transformation of oil spills and DOM. Also we proposed a new application of technique, FT-ICR MS, for fast screening and finger printing oil spills, which can be potentially used for oil spill investigation, linking the spills to the sources. Here we presented our previous study from two aspects: 1) Using biomarker to evaluate the effect of bioremediation with inorganic mineral nutrients, slow release fertilizer and/or microbial inoculation on the removal of crude oil contamination. Biodegradation are tracked by GC-MS analysis of selected components by hopane normalization. Biodegradation of biomarkers like pristane/phytane, hopanes, alkyl-PAHs have been compared. 2) Using excitation emission matrix coupled with parallel factor analysis (EEM-PARAFAC) and δ¹³C analysis to characterize dissolved organic matter (DOM) in Florida Bay. Quantification of DOM sources is accomplished by IsoSource modeling.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90182©2013 AAPG/SEG Student Expo, Houston, Texas, September 16-17, 2013