Remediation of heavy hydrocarbon impacted soil using biopolymer and polystyrene foam beads.

A green chemistry solution is presented for the remediation of heavy hydrocarbon impacted soils. The two-phase recovery system relies on a plant-based biopolymer, which releases hydrocarbons from soil, and polystyrene foam beads, which recover them from solids and water. The efficiency of the process was demonstrated by comparisons with control experiments, where water, biopolymer, or beads alone yielded total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) reductions of 25%, 52%, and 58%, respectively, compared to 94% when 1.25 mL of 1% biopolymer and 15 mg beads per gram of soil were agitated for 30 min. Reductions in TPH content were substantial regardless of soil fraction, with removals of 97%, 91%, and 75% from sand, silt, and clay size fractions, respectively. Additionally, treatment efficiency was independent of carbon number, C13 to C43, as demonstrated by reductions in both diesel fuel (C13-C28) and residual-range organics (C25-C43) of ∼90%. Compared to other published polymer- and surfactant-based treatment methods, this system requires less mobilizing agent, sorbent, and mixing time. The remediation process is both efficient and sustainable because the biopolymer is re-useable and sourced from renewable crops and polystyrene beads are obtained from recycled materials.

Errors in alkylated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and sulfur heterocycle concentrations caused by currently employed standardized methods.

Alkylated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and polycyclic aromatic sulfur heterocycle (PASH) standardized methods often rely on gas chromatography/mass spectrometry operated in the selected ion monitoring mode (GC/MS-SIM). The objective of this study is to develop a method that produces accurate data while minimizing sample preparation and achieving low levels of detection. Most standardized methods are based on acquiring a given homologue's molecular ion (1-ion). Some methods include a second, confirming ion (2-ion) in the hopes of excluding non-target ion signals from the total homologue peak area. Although all methods use homologue-specific retention windows, these windows differ greatly among the methods. In this paper we evaluate, for the first time, errors in quantitation caused by using different windows as well as common ion effects when target and/or matrix compounds coelute. Two NIST-certified Standard Reference Materials (SRMs), crude oil SRM 1582 and marine sediment SRM 1941b, were analyzed by five standardized methods and by the new method we developed, which relies on spectral deconvolution of three to five ions per PAH/PASH and as many fragmentation patterns as needed to correctly identify the C1 to C4 homologues (MFPPH). All of the standardized methods overestimated the concentrations of the majority of alkylated homologues whereas MFPPH obtained values much closer to NIST-certified concentrations. Rather than straight-line integration of all peaks in the retention window or recognizing peak patterns, the MFPPH data analysis software integrates only those peaks that meet the compound identity criteria.

A new spectral deconvolution - selected ion monitoring method for the analysis of alkylated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in complex mixtures.

A new gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) method is proffered for the analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and their alkylated homologs in complex samples. Recent work elucidated the fragmentation pathways of alkylated PAH, concluding that multiple fragmentation patterns per homolog (MFPPH) are needed to correctly identify all isomers. Programming the MS in selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode to detect homolog-specific MFPPH ions delivers the selectivity and sensitivity that the conventional SIM and/or full scan mass spectrometry methods fail to provide. New spectral deconvolution software eliminates the practice of assigning alkylated homolog peaks via pattern recognition within laboratory-defined retention windows. Findings show that differences in concentration by SIM/molecular ion detection of C1-C4 PAH, now the standard, yield concentration differences compared to SIM/MFPPH of thousands of percent for some homologs. The SIM/MFPPH methodology is also amenable to the analysis of polycyclic aromatic sulfur heterocycles (PASH) and their alkylated homologs, since many PASH have the same m/z ions as those of PAH and, thus, are false positives in SIM/1-ion PAH detection methods.

Toward the accurate analysis of C1-C4 polycyclic aromatic sulfur heterocycles.

Polycyclic aromatic sulfur heterocycles (PASH) are sulfur analogues of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). Alkylated PAH attract much attention as carcinogens, mutagens, and as diagnostics for environmental forensics. PASH, in contrast, are mostly ignored in the same studies due to the conspicuous absence of gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) retention times and fragmentation patterns. To obtain these data, eight coal tar and crude oils were analyzed by automated sequential GC-GC. Sample components separated based on their interactions with two different stationary phases. Newly developed algorithms deconvolved combinatorially selected ions to identify and quantify PASH in these samples. Simultaneous detection by MS and pulsed flame photometric detectors (PFPD) provided additional selectivity to differentiate PASH from PAH when coelution occurred. A comprehensive library of spectra and retention indices is reported for the C(1)-C(4) two-, three-, and four-ring PASH. Results demonstrate the importance of using multiple fragmentation patterns per homologue (MFPPH) compared to selected ion monitoring (SIM) or extraction (SIE) to identify isomers. Since SIM/SIE analyses dramatically overestimate homologue concentrations, MFPPH should be used to correctly quantify PASH for bioavailability, weathering, and liability studies.