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