Identification of the source(s) of unknown spilled oils (review)

Chemical fingerprinting and data interpreting techniques that help to identify spilled oil and petroleum products in complex contaminated environmental samples are reviewed. The chemical fingerprinting techniques include recognition of distribution patterns of petroleum hydrocarbons, determination of major oil components and hydrocarbon groups, determination of 'source-specific marker' compounds such as PAH and biomarkers and carbon isotopic ratio analysis. The differences between biogenic and pyrogenic hydrocarbons and petrogenic hydrocarbons are described. Several case histories are presented to illustrate the process of identifying complex hydrocarbon mixtures using these advanced chemical fingerprinting methods,71 refs., 13 figs