Hydrocarbon status of soils under different ages of oil contamination

• Published in: Eurasian soil science 2016-05, Vol.49 (5), p.529-537
• Main Authors: Gennadiev, A. N., Pikovskii, Yu. I., Kovach, R. G., Koshovskii, T. S., Khlynina, N. I.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Butane; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences; Oil and gas fields; Oil fields; Oil pollution; Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; Soil Chemistry; Soil contamination; Soil horizons; Soil pollution; Soil sciences; Soils; Somatotropin
• ISSN: 1064-2293; 1556-195X
• DOI: 10.1134/S1064229316050045

Modifications of the hydrocarbon status (HCS) of soils at the stages of the injection input of oil pollutants and the subsequent self-purification of the soil layer from technogenesis products have been revealed in studies conducted on an oil field. Comparison with the HCS of background soils has been performed. Changes in the composition and concentration of bitumoids, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and hydrocarbon gases have been established. The HCS of a freshly contaminated soil is characterized by the predominance of butane (the highest component) in the gaseous phase, an abrupt increase in the concentration of second-kind bitumoids, and a 100-fold increase in the content of PAHs compared to the background soil. In the old contaminated soil, free and fixed methane becomes the predominant gas; the content of bitumoids in the upper soil horizons is lower than in the freshly contaminated soils by two orders of magnitude but higher than in the background soil by an order of magnitude; the PAH composition in the soil with old residual contamination remains slightly more diverse than in the background soil.