A Quality Assurance Study for the Analysis of Hydrocarbons in Sediments |
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Authors: | Joan Albaiges Joan Grimalt |
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Affiliation: | Department of Environmental Chemistry , Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo (CSIC) Jorge Girona Salgado , 18-26, 08034, Barcelona, Spain |
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Abstract: | Abstract Two exercises (MEDCAL I and II) were conducted in our Department during November 1984 and October 1986, with participants from the Mediterranean region, for testing the IOC Manual for the determination of petroleum hydrocarbons in sediments (IOC, Manuals and Guides, No. 11). The gas chromatographic analysis of the saturated hydrocarbon fraction provided, at the best, a precision of 60% (relative standard deviation RSD) for n-alkanes (mean conc. 0.89 μg/g) and 56 % for the unresolved complex mixture (UCM) (mean conc. 16μg/g). The CPI and the pristane/phytane ratio provided better results (13% RSD). The aromatic fractions, analysed by UV-fluorescence, yielded in total a mean concentration of 10μg/g of chrysene equivalents with a 49% RSD. The extraction-partition step was confirmed to be the main source of error in the analysis because when the results were corrected for recoveries, the RSD were reduced to 17, 30 and 6% for n-alkanes, UCM and total aromatics, respectively. Our reference intra-laboratory precision was, respectively, 18, 14 and 14%. |
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Keywords: | Reference methods for hydrocarbon analysis quality assurance analysis hydrocarbons in sediments hydrocarbon analysis oil pollution monitoring |
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