Petrol Range Organics In Soils, Sludges And Wastewaters by Headspace GC-MS

Most PRO methods quantify the petrol range organics by indiscriminately integrating the area between two points, this area being calibrated against a petrol or other suitable standard. There are numerous possible sources of error with such a method not the least of which is the reporting of peaks and areas that are not actually petrol based. For this reason it was felt that there was a need to produce results that reported what was being asked for i.e. Petrol content. Several petrol samples were obtained and analysed by Headspace GC-MS to evaluate the major components, these were determined to be mostly aromatic in nature in fresh product. It was also likely that degraded petrol was to be found and to this end the aliphatic fraction of petrol would also be analysed for, in addition to these compounds a series of oxygenates or additives would be included.