Accurate analysis of petroleum hydrocarbons in soil is an important prerequisite for proper source tracking of contamination. Identification of petroleum compounds is commonly carried out by peak pattern matching in gas chromatography. However, this method has several technical limitations, especially when the soils underwent biological, physical and chemical transformation. For instance, it is very difficult to distinguish jet fuel (JP-8) from kerosene because JP-8 is derivatized from secondary reaction between chemical agents (e.g. anti-oxidants, antifreezer and so on) and kerosene. In this study, an alternative method to separately analyze JP-8 and kerosene in the petroleum hydrocarbon contaminated soil was proposed. Qualitative analyses were performed for representative phenolic antioxidants [2,6-di-tert-butyl phenol (2,6-DTBP), 2,4-di-tert- butylphenol(2,4-DTBP), 2,6-di-tert-butyl-4-methyl phenol (2,6-DTBMP)] using a two dimensional gas chromatograph mass spectrometer (2D GC×GC-TOF-MS). This qualitative analysis of antioxidants in soil would be a useful complementary tool for the peak pattern matching method to identify JP-8 contamination in soil.

Keywords: Soil, Antioxidants, JP-8, Lubricants oil, Kerosene, Environmental forensic