LTR - Ep 63 - What Is Meant by Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons aka TPH?

In this Episode 63, I discuss "What Is Meant by Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons aka TPH?"

TPH stands for Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons.  TOTAL means ANY and ALL captured and provided in a single measurement.

Petroleum is derived from Crude Oil extracted from the ground.  Once extracted, it is moved to a refinery for the distillation process of adding heat to it, to separate it into different fractions based upon weight.  The weight is due to the number of Carbons present.  This separation is what gives us our different fractions or "Refined Fuels."  Refined Fuels such as the lighter being Gasoline, then a little heavier like Diesel Fuel due to it containing more carbons.  Then the heavier fractions being the Oils having the most carbons. 

GRO stands for Gasoline Range Organics.  This typically covers the carbon number ranges of C6-12.

DRO stands for Diesel Range Organics.  This typically covers the carbon number ranges of C10-28. 

GRO and DRO are typically the primary focus as they are the more commonly used and thus spilled or released during use, transport or storage.  

However there is also ORO which stands for Oil Range Organics which covers the carbon number range from C20-35.  Since Refined Fuel are derived from Oil, when Oil is present, it i typically in larger quantities and thus higher concentrations.

TPH (TOTAL Petroleum Hydrocarbons) encompasses all three of these ranges from C6-35.

Having a measurement that covers all of these ranges is the best approach for monitoring remediation work.  Post Remediation, The. Laboratory can provide you with both the TPH measurement and break it down further into the different ranges if you would like, but the TPH measurement covers all of them.

As always, if you have a topic you would like us to discuss in a future podcast or a specific question you'd like us to address, please let us know by sending it into, CFator@LetsTalkRemediation.com.

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:29

Hey there, let's talk remediation. This is your host, Charles Fader, and this is our 63rd episode of Let's Talk Remediation. Our 63rd episode is brought to us by our ongoing sponsor, Hambi Environmental. Hambi Environmental is a manure manufacturer of field test kits. Field test kits used to analyze soil, solid surface, and water samples for the detection of petroleum hydrocarbons, for the detection of PFAS and PFOS, and for the detection of chlorides. So thank you, Hambi Environmental, for your ongoing support of this podcast. Let's talk remediation, where we're trying to have a positive impact on the environmental remediation industry. And with that, let's get started with our 63rd episode. Our 63rd episode builds upon an older episode, episode 15, when in episode 15 we talked about what does TPH mean and why is it the best remediation measurement? So our 63rd episode is going to be a deeper dive into TPH. So the topic will be what does TPH mean? And so with that, I wanted to go ahead and talk about TPH standing for total petroleum hydrocarbons. Total petroleum hydrocarbons. So the the the reason why it says that is total means we are going to get any and all with this particular measurement of TPH. Okay. TPH is a way of measuring petroleum hydrocarbons contamination. Now, petroleum hydrocarbons in the sense of contamination refers to crude oil or any refined fuel that comes from crude oil, or even breaking it down further, petroleum hydrocarbons include aromatics. So let's talk about it, okay? So how do we get fuels? Well, we get crude oil from the ground, and crude oil is oil in its raw form, right? That's why it's called crude oil. Then what happens is once we've uh taken the crude oil from the ground, it needs to be refined. So it gets taken from the ground, moved to a refinery, and at the refinery, what they do uh in simplistic terms is they add heat. They heat up the crude oil. And by heating up the crude oil, it begins to separate based on weight, okay? And when it separates based on weight, we get lighter fuels, and that's where we talk about, like say gasoline. Gasoline is a lighter fuel. Uh, and then uh a little bit heavier would be diesel fuel, okay, as opposed to where it originated from, say crude oil. So we're adding heat to crude oil, and uh it's the distillation process of adding heat and separate baitings based on weight. Now, what gives it this these different weights that allow them to separate? Well, hydrocarbons have the molecules of hydrogen and carbon. That's why they're called hydrocarbons. They have a bunch of hydrogens and carbons. And the number of carbons that are present in its chemical makeup, the number of carbon molecules gives it weight, okay? And so the less uh carbons in the chemical makeup will be the lighter fuels when heat is added to them, when the heat is added to the crude oil. So what does that mean? All right, so when heat is added to the crude oil, the crude oil itself is the heavier fraction. Prior to the heat being uh added to it to create the separation, it is the heavier fraction. That means it has the most carbons, right? So then as heat is added to it, uh, you know, again, the separation occurs, and the lighter fuels separate because they have less carbons, and then the you know, the ones that have a little bit more than, say, the gasoline, which is the lightest ones, you would be that like the diesel fuel and the jet fuel and that type of thing, right? They have a little bit a few more carbon molecules in their chemical makeup than say the lighter refined fuel such as gasoline, right? So now that we have a an understanding for how uh fuels relate to crude oil, uh that's why we it the TPH, total petroleum hydrocarbons measurement is measuring petroleum hydrocarbons. That means hydrocarbons created from crude oil, right? So we start with the crude oil, we add the heat, we separate them based on weight, uh, where the separation of the lighter or less carbons in the chemical makeup separate to the top, and that's say the the gasolines, then the diesel fuels and jet fuels have a few more hydrocarbon molecules, so they separate in the middle, and then the heavier fractions are the oil fractions, right? And so that is how TPH is referred to, right? So when they separate these things out and they measure them based on the number of carbons, then you have ranges, right? So you'll have a range for the lighter fractions or the lighter fuels such as gasoline. And in that case, um the number of carbons uh in the chemical makeup between the hydrogens and the carbons could be anywhere between six and twelve, okay? And that's what they call gasoline range uh uh organics. So when when they make the measurement, if they find that there's between six and twelve uh carbons present, then they will say it's probably gasoline because gasoline has that many carbon atoms in its chemical makeup. Then if there's a few a few more carbons in its chemical makeup when they make that measurement, then they would call it uh diesel range. It has a few more carbon makeups. And the diesel range typically has between say 10 and 28 carbons present, okay? But so if if in the the breakdown of the measurements that the the laboratory is making on the sample, if they find that there's like uh eight carbons present, well, eight falls between six and twelve, so they're gonna call it gasoline because it falls in the gasoline range, right? But if they find that there's about uh eighteen carbons present, well, then they're gonna say it's probably not gasoline, it's probably diesel fuel because it falls in the diesel range. Diesel range goes from 10 to 28 carbons, right? So the if there was 18 carbons present, then they're gonna say this particular uh sample is probably diesel fuel. And then they have uh the higher fractions, remember when there's more carbons present, typically where the crude oils fall is the oil range organics. Oil range is when there falls, uh there could be somewhere between 20 and 35 uh carbons uh present in the chemical makeup, in which case then you're talking about the heavier fractions, which is going to be the oils, the crude oils, uh, the bunker oil. You know, more raw oil is the heavier fractions. That's why there's more carbons present. So TPH standing for total petroleum hydrocarbons. They say petroleum hydrocarbons because everything is coming from originally the crude oil, the petroleum. And then petroleum hydrocarbons, hydrocarbons, they all have hydrogens and carbons, and it depends on the number of carbons as to which fraction it is. If it's a lighter fuel, which is a gasoline, if it's a medium uh number of carbons present, which is a diesel fuel, or there's a whole bunch of carbons present, which is gonna be in the in the oil range, heating oils, lubricating oils, or all the way down to crude oils. So that is what's meant by petroleum hydrocarbons. Now the measurement itself, total petroleum hydrocarbons, total petroleum hydrocarbons, whether you're using a field measurement such as Hambi's uh field test kit, which is gonna give you a TPH measurement of total petroleum hydrocarbons, or if you're sending something off to a lab and you're having to lab analyze it, and they're gonna give you your TPH number, um, your total petroleum hydrocarbons. But at the lab, they're probably gonna break it out and tell you what they found, how many were in this range, how many were in this range, and how many were in this range, which is GRO, gasoline range organics, DRO, diesel range organics, or ORO oil range organics. And again, gasoline range organics have between six and twelve carbon atoms, diesel range organis, uh diesel range organics have between uh 10 and 28 uh carbon atoms present, and then oil range organics have between 20 and 35 uh carbons present in their chemical makeup. So typically uh the TPH will is going to be broken out into those different ranges by your lab analytics. Now, sometimes they'll just give you the to total, which is the TPH number. TPH means total petroleum hydrocarbons, which means all those that are present, meaning it's going to sum up the numbers found in GRO, gasoline range organics, DRO, diesel range organics, and ORO oil range organics. And why is that? Well, TPH means any and all captured as a single measurement. So as in the case of the Hambi environmental field test kits, we give you a TPH number, a single measurement that captures all the organics that were analyzed in the measurement. The the uh the lab results typically will give you not only that TPH number, but they'll break it down even further into how much was found in each one of those ranges. Now, uh when you're actually monitoring your remediation work in the field, you don't really need those things broken out, which is why you know our Hambi test kits are are made so that we don't break those things out. We just give you the TPH measurement, the total petroleum hydrocarbons measurement, because you're getting any and all, which is the best approach for doing remediation. You are just needing to know what's there. We don't need to know which range it's in. It doesn't really matter to us because it's contamination. We're trying to remediate or clean up that contamination, so we don't need to know what particular range it is, we just need to know if it's present or not. So we sum it up and give it as a single measurement. So again, the total petroleum hydrocarbons means any and all that are present, total petroleum hydrocarbons. So hydrocarbons meaning that it was derived from petroleum, crude oil, and has hydrogens and carbons in its chemical makeup, and the total of all those is how we get to the TPH measurement. So now I've referred to this as being, you know, gasoline range organics, diesel range organics, and oil range organics, meaning that we have crude oil that we've taken from the ground, we've sent it to the refinery and done the distillation process by adding heat to it and separating it based on weight, and that's how we get our refined fuels, which is gasoline, the lighter range, uh, diesel fuel and jet fuel is the medium uh weight range, and then the the oil range is typically your motor oils, your lubricating oils, your crude oils, your mineral oils, because they have more carbons in there, so a little bit heavier. All right. Now, I want to dive a little bit further into that. So now we we see there, you know, the process of refining crude oil and creating refined fuels and why we have a TPH measurement, total petroleum hydrocarbons measurement. But I also want people to understand that aromatics, aromatics, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene, those aromatics, commonly referred to as BTEx, uh, are found in all crude oils and in all refined fuels. So when somebody says, Oh, you're taking a TPH measurement, but I need to know the B-tex, it's included. It's any and all. Those things are present, those individual aromatic components are present in the chemical makeup of all crude oils and all refined fuels. And I'm going to have a specific uh uh episode coming up where I'm gonna go more in detail about BTEX, just like I'm doing here is TPH, total petroleum hydrocarbons. I want to really talk about BTEX. But B-tex, benzene, ethylene, uh BTEX, uh benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene, that's the first letter of each one of those uh particular aromatic components. Benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene is referred to as B-tex. Those are found in all crude oils and all refined fuels. So if you are looking for the contamination of even one of those aromatics, such as benzene, we are picking it up as a TPH measurement because it is included, whether it's a crude oil, whether it's a refined fuel, or whether it's one of those individual aromatic components itself, it is being picked up as part of a TPH measurement because it's any and all. So if you have only the contamination of one of those aromatic uh components, such as say benzene, benzene alone, it's still going to be picked up when you use a TPH measurement, because total petroleum hydrocarbons and benzene is a fraction of hydrocarbons. So think of it as even a further distillation, if you will, or further breakdown, or zooming in of it's a smaller component of, say, a refined fuel, you know, because B-tex, benzene is the first letter in B-tex, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene, benzene is uh a smaller component of the chemical makeup of refined fuels and crude oils. So a TPH measurement, meaning any and all, is going to capture that benzene as part of the measurement. And if it's benzene alone, you're going to get a benzene measurement, uh, you know, using a TPH method. So anyway, that's really what I wanted to get to today was I wanted to talk about how TPH, standing for total petroleum hydrocarbons, is a measurement for measuring contamination of petroleum hydrocarbons. Okay, uh again, they are referred to as hydrocarbons because their chemical makeup is of hydrogens and carbons, and they are derived from petroleum, meaning crude oil. It starts crude oil starts the process, and again the distillation process is adding the heat to it, separating it based on weight, and that weight is specifically calculated based on the number of carbons in its chemical makeup. So um it just makes it an an easy and simple way for monitoring uh the remediation of hydrocarbon contamination, all right, that comes from, say, gasoline or diesel fuel or jet fuel or uh I don't know, heating oil, motor oil, lubricating oil, mineral oil, these types of things are all derived from the original source was the crude oil that we took from the ground, and then we uh we added heat to it, which is the distillation process, to create different fractions from that very heavy crude oil to making it separate based on weight, uh, which the weight is specifically correlated to the number of carbon atoms, and so that's how we get our different fuels and our different types of oils is by separating out the fractions. The fractions are the weight fractions, and that specifically correlates the number of carbon atoms in the chemical makeup from each one of those things. So that's what I wanted to hit on today. What does TPH mean? And uh that's total petroleum hydrocarbons, and uh, you know, what is it used for? It's used for a way of monitoring uh the remediation of uh contamination from petroleum hydrocarbons. Uh with that, I thank you for tuning in. Thank you, Hambi Environmental, for your ongoing support of this podcast, Let's Talk Remediation, where we're having a positive impact on the environmental remediation industry. Uh, and uh as I always say towards the end of one of these uh episodes, if you have a topic or a specific question you'd like for us to have uh covered on a future episode, please reach out. Uh, my email address is C Fader, that's C Frank A-T-O-R at let's talkremediation.com, and we'll get that covered for you. And uh thank you for tuning in. And with that, I'm your host, Charles Fader, and I'm out.

SPEAKER_01 18:20

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