| Abstract | Headspace gas chromatography has been utilized to develop a fast and reliable technique for analysis of aqueous effluents containing diluent naphtha in the ppm to 0.5 w/w% range, without the need to extract the sample with solvent. In the headspace technique only the vapour phase is sampled, which minimizes interferences from high-boiling components such as bitument or heavy oil. The effect on the quantitative determination of naphtha of the presence of various types of mineral matter, such as bentonite, sand, extracted oil sand, clay from extracted oil sands samples and solids from various tailings streams, was investigated. The technique was also found to be useful to measure the extent of emulsification or the degree of adsorption of naphtha by mineral matter. Samples of oil sand tailings were analyzed for their naphtha content by this technique and the Syncrude GC method. The results from the two methods were similar. |
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