The TPH (Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons) quantitation in water sample is regulated in many EU State members. It involves the analysis of two hydrocarbon fraction: VPH (Volatile Petroleum Hydrocarbons also called C<12) and EPH (Extractable Petroleum Hydrocarbons also called C10-C40).
Italian regulation asks for several water matrices an LOQ in the range of tenth ppb.
The reference method for EPH (ISO 9377-2) requires one liter of sample and more than 50 ml of hexane, not to mention a high amount of Florisil® and sodium sulphate. Furthermore, the
sample preparation requires lot of operator time, as well as carefully cleaned glassware.
The solution proposed by SRA, compared with the standard sample-prep, saves up to 90% of hexane, reduces up to 1/50 the sample volume, and requires less than 1/10 of Florisil®.
Furthermore, the whole sample prep is totally automated, with no evaporation step which can cause loss of volatile fraction.
The operator is only asked to place samples on autosampler and start the process.
In addition, the analytical platform is suitable to run both determinations (VPH and EPH) without any operator attendance.