The Organic and General Chemistry Section (O&GC) provides scientific understanding of organic compounds in soils, sediments and waters. O&GC capability maybe divided into five themes:

Baseline Pollution Studies and Environmental Forensics: Quantification of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in soils, sediments and waters including total non-volatile hydrocarbons (saturate/aromatic and NSO compound classes) by TLC-FID (Iatroscan), Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH) by GC-FID, 15 of the 16 US EPA 'priority pollutant' polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) by HPLC with fluorescence detection, Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB) reported as individual ICES 7 PCB and ∑tri, tetra, hepta, hexa and hepta homologues as well as ∑PCB congeners by GC/MS. Values can be normalised to Total Organic Carbon (TOC) to enable direct sample comparison. Additional expertise in the analysis of volatile organic compounds such as BTEX and TCE by headspace GC/MS, pesticides such as mecoprop, atrazine and diuron, organo-metallic species such as tributyl-tins (TBT) and xenoestrogens. The O&GC laboratory is also capable of quantification of explosives formulations HMX, RDX and TNT in sediments by HPLC and quantification of sewage sterols to track sewage/faecal matter in the environment by GC/MS.

Terrestrial and Marine Palaeoenvironmental Analysis: Application of analytical Pyrolysis combined with Gas Chromatography-Mass-Spectrometry (Py-GC/MS), Chemolysis-GC/MS and Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), to characterise structural polymers and macromolecules such as polysaccharides, lignin, suberin and tannin as well geomacromolecules such as kerogens and coal in order to reconstruct palaeoenvironment, determine biotic and abiotic alteration and understand biochemical evolution. The O&GC section is also competent in the quantification of Black Carbon (BC) in soils and sediments by chemothermo/oxidation method and in the isolation of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in groundwaters by Tangential Flow Ultrafiltration (TFU).

Climate Change: Estimation of palaeotemperature and palaeoclimate using biomarkers 'fossil biological molecules'. Sedimentary organic matter that is soluble in organic solvent is removed by accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) fractionated by column chromatography and analysed by GC/MS operated in either full scan or selected ion monitoring mode. The range of biomarkers analysed for includes n-alkanes, n-alkanols, carboxylic acids, sterols (palaeoecology and atmospheric transport), highly branched isoprenoids (palaeosalinity) as well as alkenones for the UK37 and UḰ37 sea-surface temperature proxy.

Hydrocarbon Exploration and Reservoir Studies: Oil-source rock correlations, oil-oil correlations and reservoir studies using TOC and Iatrosan screening for saturate, aromatic and polar (NSO) fractions, quantification of saturate fraction using GC-FID evaluation of n-alkane envelop, CPI, pristine/n-C17 ratio, Pr+Ph / n-alkanes to indicate maturation, migration, biodegradation. A more detailed picture of oil chemistry is obtained by analysing the saturate fraction by GC/MS in SIM mode for specific biomarkers such as steranes, triterpanes and a variety of other compound classes.

General Chemistry: Determination of common soil parameters including, cation exchange capacity (CEC), loss-on-ignition (LOI), soil pH and total Mercury (Hg) by Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry (AFS).

For further information, please contact:

Chris Vane
British Geological Survey
Keyworth
Nottingham NG12 5GG

• Sample Preparation and Testing
• Environmental Materials Facility
• Aqueous Analytical
• ICP
• XRFS
• Mobile Environmental Laboratory
• Bioaccessibility
• Identification and quantification of depleted uranium in the environment
• Analysis of water samples