Predicting the age of weathered hydrocarbon mixtures

• Author / Creator

  Zorzetti, Brianne

• Predicting the time for which a petroleum mixture has been exposed to weathering effects could have many applications. Historically, research on the evaporation rates of hydrocarbon mixtures has focused on forensic oil spill
  identification. Relatively little attention has focused on estimating the exposure time for a weathered petroleum sample based on the observed composition at a given time, and assuming a prior composition.
  A hierarchical application of multivariate techniques was used to estimate the time for which a hydrocarbon mixture was exposed to evaporative weathering. Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS‐DA) could predict
  whether a sample was relatively fresh (< 12 hours exposure time) or highly weathered (> 20 hours exposure time). Subsequent regression models for these classes were evaluated for accuracy using the root mean square error of
  prediction (RMSEP). One nonlinear regression model in particular was found to satisfactorily estimate the age of weathered petroleum samples.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • PLS-DA
  • GC×GC
  • LWR
  • Integration Template
  • Gasoline
  • Weathering
  • Flow modulation

• Graduation date

  Fall 2011

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R34D88

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.