A Review of Techniques for the Determination of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons in Soils

The Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon (TPH) is the total of different types of hydrocarbons in the crude oil mixture. It includes volatile petroleum hydrocarbons and extractable petroleum hydrocarbons. The TPH determination techniques are primarily grouped into spectroscopic (ultraviolet spectroscopy, raman spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy) and non- spectroscopic (gravimetric, immunoassay, gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection (GC/MSD), gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (GC-FID)) techniques. Solvent and the sample characteristics determine the efficiency of the techniques. This paper compares spectroscopic (fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and ultraviolet spectroscopy) and non-spectroscopic (gravimetric and gas chromatography) methods in the determination of TPH in soil. Spectroscopic and non-spectroscopic techniques are efficient, but the paper recommends spectroscopic techniques because the techniques are efficient with small operational time, and are safer in occupational health and safety issues. In addition their results are accurate and reliable.