The QED Petroleum Hydrocarbon Analyser is being used on the Niger Delta cleanup project for instant on-the-spot petroleum hydrocarbon identifica...
Published on by Liz Browne, Marketing at QROS
The Niger Delta is among the world's most important wetlands, containing the largest freshwater swamp in Africa with the greatest diversity of aquatic species on the continent, as well as rain and mangrove forests. Sadly it is now one of the most polluted areas on earth. Around 6.5 million people live in the area, whose health and livelihoods, mainly in fishing and agriculture, have been seriously affected by pollution from oil spills.
Nigeria is one of the world's biggest oil producers and over 98% of the country's oil wells, around 6,400, are located in the Niger Delta, along with over 1,100 km of pipeline. Its deep oil and gas reserves account for more than 70% of Nigeria's revenue since the 1970s. Between 2011and 2021 there were almost 10,000 oil spills in the region,according to the Nigerian government's National Oil Spill Response and Detection Agency NOSDRA.
An abnormally high level of TPHs (total petroleum hydrocarbons) and HMs (heavy metals) have been found in the sediments and surface soils in the area,due to the large number of oil spills, atmospheric deposition, unregulated industrial emissions etc. These TPHs and HMs are persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic and carcinogenic compounds widely distributed in the aquatic environment in the area.
The QED Petroleum Hydrocarbon Analyser identifies and quantifies TPH as well as a wide range of Hydrocarbons, including crude oils, Waste Oils, Fuel Oils (Petrol, Diesel, Jet Fuel etc,) GRO, DRO, BTEX, PAH, Lubricating Oils, coal tars, bitumen, etc,and gives you the sum of the 16 PAHs, total C10-C35 aromatics and benzo-a-pyrene. Analysis is done in seconds, on site, with accuracy independently proven in CONCAWE report 12/22 to be at least as accurate as GCMS laboratory analysis, but in real time and at low cost per sample. The QED is the only analyser in or outside a lab that can do this accurately and in a single analysis, saving weeks in getting results as well as significant costs. It is easy to use and highly portable, the whole kit fits in a suitcase.
The QED also “sees” but subtracts background organic compounds, which are of course massively present in swamplands like the Niger Delta. These are typically reported as TPH by laboratories, leading to false positives and unnecessary remediation.
QROS also supplies an on site XRF analyser for heavy metals including cadmium, mercury and chrome.
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Taxonomy
- Oil & Gas
- Oil Spill Treatments
- Pollution
- Oil & Gas
- Spill Containment
- Oil Well Monitoring & Management
- Petrolium Hydrocarbon Identification