Qualitative and Quantitative comparison of field-based analytical technologies for petroleum hydrocarbons determination in soils

Report no. 12/22: The performance of seven field-based technologies including 3 portable solvent-based technologies and 4 handheld solvent free technologies were evaluated for petroleum hydrocarbons determination in soil and soil-gas samples from a range of gasoline and diesel spiked soils as well as soils from field sites contaminated with hydrocarbons.

Performance of the field technologies were compared to an established reference gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analytical method for petroleum hydrocarbons. Further to this, the recovery and performance of the solvent-based technologies were assessed using a certified soil reference material and benchmarked against commercial accredited laboratory analysis for the field contaminated samples.