Quantification of Petroleum Products in Soil of Natural Moisture Content by IR Spectrometry

A method is proposed for determining petroleum products (PPs) in soil of natural moisture content by IR spectrometry. The results obtained by the proposed IR spectrometric procedure with measuring the absorbance of an extract of oil products from the soil with Freon 113 are compared with those obtained by the standard procedure. The determination of oil products in soils according to GOST R 54039-2010 and RD 52.18.575-96 does not permit the assessment of the concentration of light petroleum products because a significant part of them is lost during drying samples at the stage of sample preparation. The proposed method significantly increases the reliability of the quantification of petroleum products in soils, because the measurements are carried out at the natural moisture content of the samples, corresponding to their moisture content at the time of removal from the bedding horizon.