what is the best method for determination of total hydrocarbons in contaminated soil?
we are working for determination of total hydrocarbons in the soil of car wash stations
Dear Dr. Mohamed A Elbagerma,
it is a very interesting question. Maybe you should try more methods to give yourself an answer. Among others I think gravimetric method, gas chromatography or using the total carbon analysis could be interesting to compare.
Please find an attachment of a guidline that might help.
Best wishes!
Total hydrocarbons or total petroleum hydrocarbons? Big difference. If total hydrocarbons, then you're probably limited to something similar to TOC. If petroleum hydrocarbons then GC-FID or solvent extraction/IR would work just fine.
solvent extraction/IR
Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater, APHA 5520 C. Partition-Infrared Method & APHA 5520 F. Hydrocarbons Method
The best method to date for TPH in soil and waste was USEPA 418.1. It was banned many years ago because of its Freon extraction. Now, most people use USEPA 8015 series or its variation. 8015 is a collection of methods, each for a different equivalent carbon number range. You can select the gasoline organics range or the diesel organics range. Some regulatory agencies like to sum up these numbers to get a "Total" TPH, which might be erroneous because there is a possibility of overlap.
Good luck!
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