Volatile Petroleum Hydrocarbons Testing

Volatile petroleum hydrocarbons (VPH) are mainly the C5 ~ C8 aliphatic hydrocarbons, C9 ~ C12 aliphatic hydrocarbons, C9 ~ C10 aromatic hydrocarbons, methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, o-xylene, m/p-xylenes (BTEX) and naphthalene [1]. The physical and chemical properties of VPH compounds are shown in table 1, and it can be seen that most of their boiling points are below 220 °C. VPH contains alkanes, cycloalkanes, aromatic hydrocarbons and aliphatic hydrocarbons and other toxic substances, which directly endanger human health. What is more, VPH are likely to release to the environment in the process of petroleum exploration and development, oil pipeline leakage, industrial waste oil discharge, volatile precipitation of surface petroleum products, mineral oil sewage irrigation, the gas stations induced water and soil pollution, and so on, since petroleum hydrocarbons can migrate in the environmental media [2, 3]. Hence, VPN has become an important part of environmental pollution monitoring.

Alfa Chemistry has a wealth of experience in the detection of volatile petroleum hydrocarbons (VPH), and we devote to be a world leader in the field of oil & gas analysis. We can provide a broad range of method to detect the VPH, at the same time ensure the accuracy of the measurement results in a relatively short period of time using advanced instruments.

The method of volatile petroleum hydrocarbons (VPH) test

Fig.1. Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer（GC-MS）

At present, the main determination method of volatile petroleum hydrocarbons (VPH) is gas chromatography [1]. Although we often used infrared spectroscopy to detect the petroleum and animal oil in water in the past, it can only reflect the comprehensive level of petroleum pollutants (>C10), but not the content of each component, and it is easy to cause the loss of volatile petroleum pollutants in the extraction process [4]. Here we use purge collection (P&T) and gas chromatography - mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method to detect volatile petroleum hydrocarbons (VPH) (Fig.1).

Fig. 2 The diagram of standard VPH

The aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons have different boiling points range between approximately 150 °C and 265 °C, which means that their retention time are also different. Fig.2 shows the diagram of standard VPH. Based on their respective standard calibration curves, we can get the content of each component in the sample.

We shall be greatly honored to provide you high-quality oil and gas tests. Feel free to contact us at any time. Our professional team will be glad to listen to your concerns and look forward to cooperating with you.

References

• MassDEP. Method for the Determination of Volatile Petroleum Hydrocarbons (VPH) by GC/MS, Revision 0, MassDEP, January 2017.

• Wang H J, Fischer T, Wieprecht W, et al． Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 2015, 22(10): 7735.

• Yu Y, Shao Z Y, Liu J, et al． Chin. J. Environ. Engin. 2017, 11(04):2522.

• HJ 637 – 2012, Water quality - Determination of petroleum oils and animal and vegetable oils - Infrared spectrophotometry.