Influence of Weathering on Oil Spill Identification

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Abstract
IR, UV and fluorescence spectroscopy are applied to identify oil spills on the sea. In order to establish the influence of weathering, the samples of crude oil, motor oil, heavy and light gas oil were weathered up to 15 days. Samples were taken every few hours, and analysed. The ratio of maximal absorbances were correlated with the time of the exposure. All ratios of maximal IR or UV absorbances decrease slowly with the weathering, so that identification of several oil samples was possible regardless of the time of weathering. Fluorescence spectroscopy cannot be applied if the samples contain only saturated hydrocarbons.