Petroleum hydrocarbons (PHCs) are a broad range of chemicals that include petroleum and petroleum refined products such as gasoline and diesel. This chemical mixture can also be described by general chemical properties, such as boiling point ranges or the size of molecules. These properties are critical to determining the value of a crude oil. For example, a light crude contains mostly small, valuable chemicals, while a heavy bitumen contains mostly larger, less valuable chemicals and must be refined more extensively to add value.
The chemical properties of petroleum hydrocarbons are also important when assessing the potential impacts of spilled material. However, this presents a problem because it is impractical to measure every chemical associated with PHCs. Certain groups of chemicals within PHCs, such as benzene and toluene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), pose particular toxicological hazards and are measured individually in a PHC mixture.
The remaining PHCs are often grouped together with specific health guidelines for the group or groups. How this is accomplished is not globally unified and the details can be quite complex. Measurement methods vary between countries, between provinces within a country, and even tailored to a specific location, depending on the nature of the PHCs.
The simplest method is called total petroleum hydrocarbons, which is an estimate of the sum of the PHCs. However, total petroleum hydrocarbons does not recognize the range of toxicities within the PHCs.
It is generally accepted that the range of PHCs presents a scale of toxicological hazard. Lighter PHCs present a higher hazard than heavier PHCs. Therefore, analysis of PHCs is usually divided into four fractions based on molecular size. Each fraction has a specific guide to toxicological hazards so that the method can generally account for the different hazards associated with, for example, light crude oil and heavy bitumen oil.
In the United States, total petroleum hydrocarbons are generally divided into specific classes, such as gasoline range organics or diesel range organics, to account for the different hazards associated with different types of PHC products in Canada.
PHCs also act as a fingerprint of a petroleum product and are often used in environmental forensics investigations. Specific groups of chemicals can be used to provide a forensic determination of where a spill may have originated, the age of the spill, and ultimately link the spill to a responsible party. The fingerprint of PHCs consists of a number of highly specific features, which are produced by the following mechanisms:
By examining the overall composition of petroleum hydrocarbons (PHCs), different types of hydrocarbon sources can be identified. At the simplest level, this can be done by analysing the GC chromatogram or extracted ion chromatograms and comparing this to samples of different product types.
A more comprehensive and precise analysis can be completed by analyzing specific groups of chemicals within petroleum hydrocarbons. Many of these are called biomarkers. These are chemicals that retain some common structure from biology. Comprehensive analysis of biomarkers provides a fundamental method of determining the source of a spill or characterizing petroleum products.
In short, petroleum hydrocarbon (PHC) pollution is one of the most common environmental problems encountered by environmental professionals. Environmental pollution caused by the release of petroleum onto land, surface water, or groundwater is a concern because the chemicals in PHCs can pose risks to humans and environmental receptors if concentrations in environmental media are high enough. Over the years, various remediation technologies have been developed to reduce the concentrations of petroleum hydrocarbon contaminants in soil and groundwater. However, areas with petroleum contamination in soils and groundwater are difficult to completely restore because,
Fortunately, most PHC components are biodegradable in aerobic or anaerobic environments, making PHC-contaminated sites easier to clean than sites contaminated with typical chlorinated solvents or metals.
Total petroleum hydrocarbons is a term used to describe any mixture of hydrocarbons found in crude oil. There are several hundred of these compounds, but not all of them are present in a single sample. Because of the many different chemicals present in crude oil and other petroleum products, it is impractical to measure each one individually. However, it is useful to measure the total amount of petroleum hydrocarbons in a field.
PHCs are generally divided into two groups: aliphatics and aromatics:
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