A Gas Liquid-Gas Solid Chromatographic Method for the Identification of Sources of Oil Pollution

A two-step gas chromatographic fingerprinting technique has been developed for the identification of petroleum that may be conveniently applied to oil spills. The first step consists of a gas chromatographic separation on nonpolar silicone rubber (SE-30) which separates according to boiling point. Five arbitrary 20° cuts are made, then further separated by gas chromatography on columns of lithium chloride supported on diatomaceous silica (Chromosorb A). The advantage of this inorganic packing is its high thermal stability that permits the separation of high-boiling oil components not readily affected by weathering. It also has the added advantage of causing no “bleeding” problems that can complicate further analyses involving mass spectroscopy. The simultaneous use of the flame ionization detector and the Melpar sulfur detector provides highly characteristic fingerprints, some of which are shown. This method has been applied to two heavy crude oils, and two fuel oils involved in oil spills from the Arrow and Irving Whale to demonstrate the potential of the method.