Abstract
Hydrocarbons extracted from a Tokyo Pay sediment were fractionated into aliphatic hydrocarbon, alkylbenzene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon fractions.
Hydrocarbons in each fraction were analyzed by a high resolution gas chromatograph and GC/MS. The total amount of n-alkanes (C17-C35), alkylbenzenes with C10-C14 alkyl carbons and PAH (one to seven rings) was 25.9, 2.9, 3.6 μg/g-dried sediment, respectively. The presence of UCM (unresolved complex mixture) and n-C21-C35 hydrocarbons with odd carbon predominance suggested that these hydrocarbons are of oil pollution and higher plant origin. Alkylbenzenes with C10-C14 alkyl carbons may have come from ABS (alkylbenzene sulfonates) pollution since their molecular distribution pattern is similar to that of ABS. The feature of PAH molecular distribution, in which alkyl homologues are minor relative to parent PAH, suggested that these PAH are mainly of combustion origin.
The availability of the present method of fractionation and determination of detailed composition of hydrocarbons to the quantitative approach to environmental pollution study is discussed.
