Source diagnostic and weathering indicators of oil spills utilizing bicyclic sesquiterpanes
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Source diagnostic and weathering indicators of oil spills utilizing bicyclic sesquiterpanes WANG Chuanyuan1∗ , HU Xiaoke1 , HE Shijie2 , LIU Xin1 , ZHAO Mingming1 1
Key Laboratory of Coastal Zone Environmental Processes, Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai 264003, China 2 College of Geography and Planning, Ludong University, Yantai 264025, China Received 20 April 2012; accepted 22 December 2012 ©The Chinese Society of Oceanography and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
Abstract Bicyclic Sesquiterpanes (BSs) are ubiquitous components of crude oils and ancient sediments. BSs in crude oils and diesel oil were identified and characterized, the effects of moderate weathering on BS distributions were discussed, and a methodology using diagnostic indices of BSs was developed for oil correlation and differentiation. The results showed that crude oils and oil products had different abundances and distributions of BSs and, consequently, resulted in different diagnostic ratios. The selected diagnostic ratio indices of BSs, such as BS4/BS5 (ratio of 4,4,8,9,9-pentamethyl-decahydronaphthalene to 8β (H)-drimane), BS6/BS5 (ratio of 4,4,9,9,10-pentamethyl-decahydronaphthalene to 8β (H)-drimane), BS8/BS9 (ratio of the second peak to the third peak of C16 sequiterpane), and BS8/BS10 (ratio of C16 sequiterpane to 8β (H)-homodrimane), still maintained better stabilities (%RSD < 5%) after weathering for 30 d. The longer weathering process (150 d) had some effect on such ratios (5% < %RSD < 10%). The facts of the uniqueness, abundance in petroleum, and chemical stability of BSs enable them to be suitable as an effective diagnostic means for identifying spilled oil with moderate weathering, particularly for lighter refined product samples that are difficult to identify by current techniques. Key words: bicyclic sesquiterpanes, distribution, diagnostic indices, weathering, oil spill source identification Citation: Wang Chuanyuan, Hu Xiaoke, He Shijie, Liu Xin, Zhao Mingming. 2013. Source diagnostic and weathering indicators of oil spills utilizing bicyclic sesquiterpanes. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 32(8): 79–84, doi: 10.1007/s13131-013-0344-y
1 Introduction At present, China is the fifth largest oil producer and the second largest oil consumer in the world. There is now a greater chance that oil spill accidents will occur during the transportation of crude oils and oil products, placing the Chinese marine environment at risk. According to correlative statistic data, oil spills from various ships resulted in a total of 2 635 accidents offshore of China between 1973 and 2006. Oil spills can cause extensive damage to marine and terrestrial life, human health, and natural resources. Therefore, characterization of chemical compositions and identi?cation of oil spill sources are, in many cases, critical for providing forensic evidence in the investigation of oil spill accidents and settling disputes related to liability (Wang and Fingas, 2003). The biomarkers most commonly used in forensic invest
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