How to analyse total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH)

What is total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) analysis?

Total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) analysis is vital for assessing petroleum contamination in soil, water, and sediment. Such contamination poses significant risks to both the environment and human health. Accurate quantitative analysis of TPH is crucial for developing effective risk assessments and remediation strategies. This analysis typically involves characterising both volatile petroleum hydrocarbons (VPH) and extractable petroleum hydrocarbons (EPH).

Challenges in extractable petroleum hydrocarbons (EPH) analysis

Analysing EPH, particularly in the range of C₈-C₄₄₊, involves several complex steps:

• Solid phase extraction (SPE): This process is necessary to separate aliphatics and aromatics into hexane and DCM, respectively.
  
  
• GC‒FID analyses: Separate gas chromatography-flame ionisation detection (GC-FID) analyses are conducted for each fraction.

This multi-step process is not only time-consuming and labour-intensive but also relies on costly consumables and increases the risk of errors.

Is GCxGC a method for TPH analysis?

Comprehensive two-dimensional chromatography (GCxGC) offers an efficient method for TPH analysis, streamlining the process significantly:

• Enhanced separation: GCxGC provides thorough characterisation of both aliphatics and aromatics in a single run, eliminating the need for sample separation.
  
  
• Efficiency: Traditional 'boiling point' separation is preserved in the first dimension while aliphatic and aromatic compounds are separated in the second dimension. This approach saves considerable extraction and processing time.
  
  
• Cost-effective: The reduction in consumable use and the elimination of the need for multiple analyses make GCxGC a cost-effective option.
  
  
• Improved VPH analysis: Using GCxGC‒FID for VPH analysis resolves common co-elutions without the need for expensive mass spectrometers, further reducing costs and improving accuracy.

By using GC×GC technology, SepSolve offers an advanced method for comprehensive TPH analysis, ensuring more efficient, accurate, and cost-effective environmental monitoring and remediation.

Thorough characterisation of aliphatic and aromatic components in a single run is achieved using our ‘TPH’ product package, which eliminates the inconvenience of SPE workflows.

Advantages of GCxGC-FID for TPH analysis

• Easier operation: Labour-intensive, multi-step SPE sample fractionation is eliminated, and GC–MS is no longer required for VPH methods.
  
  
• Reduced cost: Fewer consumables are needed, and solvent waste is reduced.
  
  
• Automated reporting: Fully automated workflows for fast, robust and objective results
  
  
• Doubled productivity: Dual-channel GC×GC allows two samples to be run at once.
  
  
• Increased reliability: Minimal sample preparation minimises the risk of error, while automated data-processing avoids operator subjectivity.
  
  
• Accredited approach: a fully validated and supported method.

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Related content

WHITE PAPER: Reliable separation and efficient group-type quantitation of volatile petrochemical hydrocarbons (VPH)

This paper describes the analysis of volatile petrochemical hydrocarbons (VPH) in environmental samples to monitor their fate, the risk to human health and to plan appropriate remediation strategies.

Details

WHITE PAPER: Reliable separation and efficient group-type quantitation of extractable petroleum hydrocarbons (EPH)

This paper describes the analysis of total petrochemical hydrocarbons (TPH) in environmental media using flow-modulated GC×GC–FID with quantitation on the basis of pre-defined compound groupings.

Details