Elsevier

Journal of Hazardous Materials

Volume 359, 5 October 2018, Pages 421-428
Journal of Hazardous Materials

Estimating degree of degradation of spilled oils based on relative abundance of aromatic compounds observed by paper spray ionization mass spectrometry

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2018.07.060Get rights and content

Highlights

  • First application of PSI-MS on photodegraded and degraded spilled oil samples.

  • PSI-MS is shown to be a suitable technique for spilled oil analysis.

  • Parameter derived from PSI-MS spectra to estimate the degree of degradation of oils.

Abstract

Paper spray ionization mass spectrometry (PSI-MS) was applied for the first time to study temporal change of photo-oxidized and weathered oils subjected to degradation. PSI is chosen in this study because it is an optimal ionization technique for the analysis of degraded oils with limited sample quantity and prone to salt and particulate contamination. With PSI-MS, quantitative analysis of oils can be successfully performed with as little as 2 μg of oil sample. In addition, oil solutions containing up to 0.05% sodium chloride were successfully analyzed with PSI-MS. In the PSI-MS spectra of photo-degraded oils, the relative abundance of compounds having double equivalence value (DBE) ≥ 5 increased but those with DBE < 5 decreased in number. The summed abundance ratio of compounds having DBE < 5 and DBE ≥ 5 showed a negative exponential correlation with the duration of UV exposure in laboratory experiments. The same trend was observed from spilled oils obtained from the environment. Therefore, this ratio serves as an effective means to estimate the degree of weathering in spilled oils.

Section snippets

Introductions

Despite the development of various alternative energy sources, petroleum still remains major resource of the global primary energy consumption [1]. Increasing global demand for oil has caused extensive oil exploration, production, and transportation activities in recent years. Unexpected oil spills can, therefore, inevitably happen during the transportation of petroleum products. It is well known that the impact of an oil spill can be long-lasting [[2], [3], [4], [5], [6]] and cause severe

Sample preparation

Spilled oil samples from the Hebei Spirit oil spill (HSOS) were collected and provided by the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST). In this accident, approximately 10,900 tons of three different types of crude oil (Kuwait export crude, Iranian heavy crude, and UAE Upper Zakum crude) were released into the sea and spread by tides and the wind. Further details on the oil spill accident can be found in previous reports [33,49]. Different weathering stages of spilled oil samples

Investigating the potential of PSI for spilled oil analysis

Sensitivity and quantitative nature of PSI on oil analysis has been evaluated by analyzing oil samples doped with an internal standard. Sodium dodecyl sulfate was used as internal standard compound. Paper tips each loaded with 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 9 μg of oil sample were subjected to MS analysis. The obtained spectra are provided in the supporting information (Figure S3). For quantitative loading of different amount of oil samples, oils were dissolved into dichloromethane and 1 μl of oil solution

Conclusions

Paper spray ionization was successfully applied to the characterization of weathered oil. Two sets of weathered oil samples, one prepared by the artificial photodegradation using an UV chamber and the other obtained from the Hebei Spirit oil spill site, were studied at the molecular level. PSI-MS showed good quantitative nature in the range from 2 μg to 10 μg of oil sample and increased tolerance to salt contamination up to 0.05% sodium chloride. It also has high sensitivity enough to analyze

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge support for this work by the Korea Coast Guard under the project “Development of advanced oil fingerprinting system” and by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea Government (MSIP), Grant No. 2017R1A2B3003455.

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