Assessment of Aliphatic Hydrocarbons in Soils from Selected Areas in Agbarho Communities, Delta State, Nigeria

Abstract

Wisdom Ivwurie, and Gabriel A. Akindeju

The occurrence of petroleum hydrocarbons in the environment has been remarkably discouraging in recent times due to the impeding toxicity of most hydrocarbons. In this study, the presence of aliphatic hydrocarbons was assessed in primary sources and in anthropogenic impacted soils within the Agbarho communities in Delta State, Nigeria. The petroleum hydrocarbons were quantified using gas chromatography equipped with flame ionization detector (GC-FID) after extraction and clean-up of the extracts with nhexane/dichloromethane (1:1 v/v). The evaluated concentrations of the total aliphatic hydrocarbons in the primary
sources ranged from 1,788,030 to 5,368,702µg kg-1 while the concentrations of the total hydrocarbon were within the range, 813 to 11900 µg kg-1 . Source activities variation in the concentrations of the total aliphatic hydrocarbon in anthropogenic impacted
soils was observed to followed the following trend, Mechanic Workshop Soil > Barbecue spot soil > Filling Station Soil > Motor Way
Soil > Traffic point soil. On the average, the concentrations of the higher molecular weight n-alkanes (> C31 in the studied soils) were the highest. Evaluated molecular indices of the investigated aliphatic hydrocarbons showed that the aliphatic hydrocarbons in these soils might have originated from different anthropogenic sources such as petrogenic and terrestrial biogenic sources.