Determination of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) in water by fluorimetric method

INTRODUCTION

Total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) is a term used to describe a large family of several hundred chemical compounds that originally come from crude oil; the main and most specific part of these compounds are non-polar and slightly polar hydrocarbons of the aliphatic, aromatic and alicyclic structure. These compounds are harmful to humans and animals if absorbed through the skin, ingested, and inhaled thus claiming the analytical control of THP content in water as a global issue.

Quantification of TPH in water is typically done using rather expensive chromatography techniques. Lumex Instruments developed fluorimetric method for cost-effective petroleum hydrocarbons in water determination using FLUORAT-02 analyzer.

METHOD

A fluorimetric method of determination of mass concentration of THP using the FLUORAT-02 analyzer is based on measuring the fluorescence intensity of oil products after their extraction from water phase by hexane.
The influence of polar substances can be eliminated by treatment of the hexane extract of TPH with hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide solutions.
For the analysis of not treated wastewater in pulp and chemical industry, as well as in the case of high absorption of the hexane extract an additional clean-up procedure using column chromatography with aluminium oxide is required.