Petroleum determining origin

Successful application to a number of tasks connected with the Second World War, such as monitoring the composition of Axis petroleum samples to determine origin, led to a considerable expansion in activities. 

Extraction Solvent. Dimethyl sulfoxide is immiscible with alkanes but is a good solvent for most unsaturated and polar compounds. Thus, it can be used to separate olefins from paraffins (93). It is used in the Institute Fransais du Pntrole (IFF) process for extracting aromatic hydrocarbons from refinery streams (94). It is also used in the analytical procedure for determining polynuclear hydrocarbons in food additives (qv) of petroleum origin (95). 

Most hydraulic fluid preparations start as chemical mixtures. For instance, there is a considerable area of overlap in the specific petroleum hydrocarbon chemicals contained in the mineral oil and polyalphaolefin hydraulic fluids. For all classes of hydraulic fluids, there may be similarities with other original products intended for use as lubricants. The complications involved in documenting the environmental fate of mixtures increase under conditions encountered at many NPL sites, where it may be hard to determine the precise original product associated with chemicals identified at an area in need of remediation. In most instances, available peer-reviewed literature, supplemented with data obtained from manufacturers of particular formulations and information in trade magazines, can supply information about the original hydraulic fluid preparations. At NPL sites, site-specific evaluations of specific chemicals may be the only feasible way to address concerns over environmental fate and potential exposure risks. 

The assessment of health effects due to exposure to the total petroleum hydrocarbons requires much more detailed information than what is provided by a single total petroleum hydrocarbon value. More detailed physical and chemical properties and analytical information on the total petroleum hydrocarbons fraction and its components are required. Indeed, a critical aspect of assessing the toxic effects of the total petroleum hydrocarbons is the measurement of the compounds, and the first task is to appreciate the origin of the various fractions (compounds) of the total petroleum hydrocarbons. Transport fractions are determined by several chemical and physical properties (i.e., solubility, vapor pressure, and propensity to bind with soil and organic particles). These properties are the basis of measures of teachability and volatility of individual hydrocarbons and transport fractions (Chapters 8, 9, and 10). 

Minshall and Helson (7) of the Dominion Department of Agriculture at Ottawa, Canada, have studied the physiological action of petroleum naphtha on carrots, parsnips, and several weeds including mustard. They used infrared absorption apparatus, and by means of readings taken at 10-second intervals following oil application, determined that photosynthesis ceased abruptly for all plants studied. With parsnips, photosynthesis was resumed within 30 minutes after application it was one third of norm at the end of 3 hours, and at the end of 48 hours reached approximately the original rate before treatment. Parsnips did not wilt following treatment. The common mustard plant had a... 

The study of the catalytic cracking of pure hydrocarbons as a key to the interpretation of the catalytic cracking of petroleum fractions is predicated on the belief that most of the hydrocarbons present in petroleum can be allocated to relatively few simple classes. This belief is supported particularly by the accumulated results of API Project 6, originally titled The Separation, Identification, and Determination of the Constituents of Petroleum (now retitled Analysis, Purification, and Properties of Hydrocarbons ). For the sake of consistency of experimental conditions, the data reported are those of the... 

A polar liquid phase was found more suitable for studying the major components of petrol, gas oil and diesel oil [3], forming true solutions in water. With such a phase, saturated hydrocarbons tended to elute before aromatic hydrocarbons, which were found to be the principal components in true solution, and therefore their investigation was facilitated, in the case of gas oil and diesel oil, forming true solutions in water. In the case of gas oil and diesel oil, no saturated hydrocarbons could be detected in solution. These authors reached the important conclusion that the determination of the origin of oil components in true aqueous solution could be more difficult because of selective solution of certain components. This effect was more likely to apply to the lower distillates, which tended to be relatively more water soluble, rather than the non volatile petroleum products. Distinction between petrol and gas oil or diesel oil seemed possible, but appeared difficult between similar products such as gas oil and diesel oil. 

Intensive research on elemental analysis has been carried out in this laboratory to overcome difficulties in determining nitrogen and sulfur in heavy fractions of petroleum or bitumens. With existing combustion techniques it was nearly impossible to obtain good overall balances for these elements when individual fractions coming from liquid chromatography were analyzed. Recoveries of 85%-95% of the quantity originally present in the... 

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