Characterisation of spilled oil samples, purpose, sampling, analysis and interpretation

Characterisation of spilled oil samples, purpose, sampling, analysis and interpretation

339 J. A. Butt, D. F. Duckworth and S. G. Perry (Eds.), Characterisution of Spilled Oil Samples, Purpose, Sampling, Analysis and Interpretation. Publ...

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J. A. Butt, D. F. Duckworth and S. G. Perry (Eds.), Characterisution of Spilled Oil Samples, Purpose, Sampling, Analysis and Interpretation. Published on behalf of The Institute of Petroleum, London by Wiley, Chichester, 1986 (ISBN o-471-90890-8). ix + 95 pp. Price $17.50. There have been several major changes in the oil industry since the early 197Os, particularly the development of North Sea oil production, which have increased potential pollution problems for the United Kingdom. The past decade has also seen significant advances in analytical techniques relating to oil characterization and an increased awareness of environmental pollution. This text is therefore a timely successor to the 1974 Institute of Petroleum publication “Marine Pollution by Oil”. It is a short text written at a very general level and is easy to read, but lacks the practical details of its predecessor. There are brief chapters on the administrative aspects of oil pollution analysis, the fate of oily pollutants in the environment and the chemical composition of petroleum. There is a more detailed chapter on sampling, sample storage and sample treatment and a final chapter (consisting of almost half the book) outlining the various analytical techniques available for oil spill identification. The key techniques discussed are gas chromatography, computerised gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, infrared spectroscopy, elemental analysis and fluorimetry. This book is intentionally aimed at a broad readership which includes company management, legislators, journalists and laymen. It is therefore somewhat disappointing from an analytical viewpoint in that it only contains an overview of analytical techniques, with little critical comment. The absence of an index and a lack of consistency in presentation is also irritating. P. J. Worsfold

F. L. Boschke (Ed.), Analytical Chemistry Progress (Vol. 126 in Topics in Current Chemistry). Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1984 (ISBN 3-540-13596-o). 122 pp. Price DM 78.00. This is a collection of five review articles on a variety of analytical or potentially analytical topics, The first, laser-induced ionization spectrometry of elements in a flame (R. B. Green), is a novel and, as yet, little exploited technique which has a theoretical detection limit approaching 1 pg ml-‘. Laser spectrometry of biomolecules (A. Anders) dealing with chlorophylI, nucleic acids, haemoglobin, rhodopsin, etc., is perhaps better known, and certainly provides a powerful diagnostic tool. The remaining three articles cover aspects of thin layer chromatography (TLC). The chapter on ion-pair reversed-phase TLC (D.-G. Volkmann) describes separations of drugs, peptides, amines, etc., on various phases in the presence of various counter ions.